UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT   LOS  ANGELES 


"H 

£ 


* 


GLIMPSES  OF  THE 
COSMOS 

BY 

LESTER  F.  WARD 


COMPRISING  HIS  MINOR  CONTRIBUTIONS 

NOW   REPUBLISHED,   TOGETHER  WITH 

BIOGRAPHICAL     AND     HISTORICAL 

SKETCHES  OF  ALL  HIS  WRITINGS 


The  writings  by  which  one 
can  live  are  not  the  writings 
which  themselves  live. — JOHN 
STUART  MILL. 


- 


GLIMPSES    OF    THE 
COSMOS 


BY 

LESTER  F.  WARD 


VOLUME  I 
PERIOD,  1858-1871.    AGE,  16-30 


Youth  is  a  blunder,  man- 
hood a  struggle,  old  age  a 
regret.  — DISRAELI. 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 

Ube     fmfcfcerbocfcer     press 

1913 


COPYRIGHT,  1913 

BY 
SARAH   C.    COMSTOCK 


TTbe  fmfcfeerboclier  f)re08,  flew  Uorfe 


„ 


O 


M 
E-« 
HI 

d 

a. 


FIRST  PERIOD: — Exuberance,  enthusiasm,  and  egotism  of 
youth.  The  only  attempt  at  fiction. 

SECOND  PERIOD: — Moral  and  patriotic  zeal  and  fervor. 
Letters  from  the  army. 

THIRD  PERIOD: — Disillusionment  in  matters  of  belief  and 
resentment  at  false  teachings. 

My  only  desire  is  to  know 
the  truth,  my  only  fear  to  cling 
to  error. — GEORGE  ELIOT. 

Had  religion  been  true  to  its  nature  and 
function,  as  wide  as  morality  and  human- 
ity, it  should  have  been  the  bond  of  unity 
to  hold  mankind  together  in  one  brother- 
hood, linking  them  in  good  feeling,  good 
will,  and  good  work  toward  one  another; 
but  it  has  in  reality  been  that  which  has 
most  divided  men,  and  the  cause  of  more 
hatreds,  more  disorders,  more  persecu- 
tions, more  bloodshed,  more  cruelties,  than 
most  other  causes  put  together. — HENRY 
MAUDSLEY. 


i 


363804 


Contents  of  Volume  I. 


NO. 

PREFACE 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PRESENT  WORK    ....  xxiii 

PERSONAL  REMARK        .         .....  Ivii 

1.  THE  SPANIARD'S  REVENGE  i 

2.  RAPIDITY  OF  PROGRESS   .....  16 

3.  LETTER  TO  MR.  W.  H.  THOMPSON      .         .         .21 

4.  LETTER  TO  MR.  W.  H.  THOMPSON      ...  29 

5.  THE  PUNISHMENT  OF  TRAITORS         ...  36 

6.  [CIRCULAR  OF  THE  NATIONAL  LIBERAL  REFORM 

LEAGUE]          ......  38 

7.  THE  SITUATION      ......  42 

8.  LEGAL  PERSECUTION       .....  47 

9.  [EDITORIAL.    THE  PRESENT  AGE]     ...  48 

10.  [EDITORIAL.    RELIGIOUS  BIAS  OF  JUDGES].         .  50 

11.  WHAT  DOES  IT  PROVE?  .....  51 

12.  SCIENCE  vs.  THEOLOGY    .....  53 

13.  ORGANIZATION       ......  56 

14.  CHARLES  H.  READ  AND  THE  FACULTY  OF  PL\R- 

VARD  UNIVERSITY     .....  59 


viii  CONTENTS 

NO.  PACE 

15.  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN'S  RELIGION         ...  63 

1 6.  THE  ENTERING  WEDGE 66 

17.  WHO  DESTROYED  THE  ALEXANDRIAN  LIBRARY?  .  69 

1 8.  [EDITORIAL.    FREDERICK    DOUGLASS    ON    THE 

CHURCHES] 72 

19.  WHAT  HAS  BEEN  GAINED?    No.  i    ...  74 

20.  WHAT  HAS  BEEN  GAINED?    No.  2    .         .         .77 

21.  THE  BIBLE  vs.  SLAVERY 80 

22.  CHRISTIANITY  AND  CIVILIZATION       ...  82 

23.  RELIGION  AND  PROGRESS          ....  85 

24.  THE  POLYGAMY  DISCUSSION     ....  88 

25.  REVEALED  RELIGION  AND  HUMAN  PROGRESS       .  91 

26.  THE  NEW  FAITH 96 

27.  WHAT  is  THE  POSITIVE  PHILOSOPHY?          .         .  99 

28.  RELIGIOUS  INFLUENCE  OF  SCIENCE    .         .         .102 

29.  DOCTRINAL  SKETCHES  [No.  i  ]  CREATION    .        .  106 

30.  THE  RISING  SCHOOL no 

31.  ANOTHER  Pious  FRAUD 113 

32.  DOCTRINAL  SKETCHES  [No.  2]  THE  FALL  OF  MAN.  1 1 5 

33.  OFFICIAL  BIGOTRY 118 

34.  ABOUT  EVIDENCE 121 

35.  [BEECHER'S  BELIEF  IN  IMMORTALITY]         .         .  123 

36.  DOCTRINAL  SKETCHES  [No.  3]  THE  PLAN  OF  SAL- 

VATION    124 


CONTENTS  ix 

NO.  PAGE 

37.  SCRAPS  OF  ECCLESIASTICAL  HISTORY  [No.  i]  THE 

SACRED  WRITINGS    .....  127 

38.  ORIGINALITY 130 

39.  AMENDE  HONORABLE      -\     '  •         •         •         .132 

40.  DOCTRINAL  SKETCHES  [No.  4]  THE  ATONEMENT  .  134 

41.  SCRAPS   OF  ECCLESIASTICAL   HISTORY,  No.  2. 

THE  NEW  TESTAMENT      .         .         .         .137 

42.  A  CHAPTER  OF  LAW 141 

43-    SIN                                                                     .  145 

44.  LAW 148 

45.  OBITUARY  [OF  MR.  J.  D.  GANGEWER]         .         .  150 

46.  DOCTRINAL  SKETCHES  [No.  5]  CHANGE  OF  HEART  1 52 

47 .  REVIEW  OF  THE  SCIENCE  OF  EVIL,  OR  FIRST  PRIN- 

CIPLES OF  HUMAN  ACTION,  BY  JOEL  MOODY, 

TOPEKA,  1871 156 

48.  HOPE 159 

49.  DOCTRINAL  SKETCHES  [No.  6]  THE  TRINITY        .  162 

50.  SCRAPS  OF  ECCLESIASTICAL  HISTORY,  No.  3. 

CHURCH  COUNCILS 164 

51.  ORGANIZATION 167 

52.  ONE  MURDERER  IN  HELL 169 

53.  DOCTRINAL  SKETCHES  [No.  7]  TRANSUBSTANTIA- 

TION 172 

54.  IMMIGRATION  STATISTICS          ....  175 

55.  FAITH  OR  FACT 202 

56.  THE  ANALOGY  OF  RELIGION      ....  205 


x  CONTENTS 

NO.  PAGE 

57.  GAG  LAW      .......    208 

58.  BENEFIT  OF  CLERGY 210 

59.  WASHINGTON  ITEMS  (BEING  AN  ACCOUNT  OF  THE 

MEETING  IN  WASHINGTON  OF  THE  INTER- 
NATIONAL CONVENTION OFTHE  YOUNG  MEN'S 
CHRISTIAN  ASSOCIATION)  .  .  .  .212 

60.  DOCTRINAL  SKETCHES  [No.  8]  THE  IMMACULATE 

CONCEPTION 215 

6 1.  SCRAPS  OF  ECCLESIASTICAL  HISTORY,   No.   4. 

CHURCH  COUNCILS  (Continued)  .         .     218 

62.  COMPARATIVE  THEOLOGY         ....     222 

63.  RELIGIOUS  WAR 224 

64.  DOCTRINAL  SKETCHES  [No.  9]  THE  INCARNATION     226 

65.  SCRAPS  OF  ECCLESIASTICAL   HISTORY,  No.   5. 

PERSECUTION  OF  THE  ALBIGENSES     .         .     229 

66.  THE  SABBATH  QUESTION — CHRISTIANS  AND  THE 

ISRAELITES 231 

67.  ANNOUNCEMENT 234 

68.  MENTAL  vs.  PHYSICAL  LIBERTY         .         .         .     236 

69.  THE  SOCIAL  EVIL 238 

70.  SCRAPS  OF  ECCLESIASTICAL   HISTORY,  No.  6. 

PERSECUTION  OF  THE  WALDENSES      .         .     242 


Preface 

/TTMIERE  is  scarcely  anything  that  I  have  been 
more  frequently  asked  to  do  than  to  re- 
publish  in  compact  and  accessible  form  my 
numerous  lesser  published  writings,  scattered 
throughout  so  many  periodicals,  and  inaccessible 
to  most  readers.  It  was  suggested  that  the  arti- 
cles be  classified  by  subjects,  but  I  did  not  wish  to 
do  this.  The  only  plan  of  publication  that  has 
ever  had  any  attraction  for  me  was  the  one  here 
adopted,  viz.,  a  strictly  chronological  arrangement 
of  everything,  great  and  small,  good,  bad,  and 
indifferent,  that  has  ever  emanated  from  my  pen 
and  found  its  way  into  print,  exclusive,  of  course, 
of  books,  and  also  exclusive  of  large  illustrated 
memoirs  and  monographs  appearing  in  the  Annual 
Reports  and  other  publications  of  the  United 
States  Geological  Survey. 

The  chief  attraction  of  this  form  of  publication 
arises  out  of  its  biographical  aspects.  Everyone 
who  is  at  all  drawn  toward  an  author  desires  to 
know  as  much  as  possible  of  his  personal  history 
and  character,  and  he  is  constantly  reading  be- 
tween the  lines  of  his  books  to  get  glimpses  of  the 
man  himself.  The  relatively  few  who  are  inter- 


xii  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

ested  in  my  books  do  this  regularly,  and  many,  not 
content  with  this,  write  me  letters  inquiring  how 
I  came  to  write  them,  what  influences  led  me  into 
certain  lines  of  investigation  or  speculation,  and 
manifesting  an  intense  interest  in  me  personally. 
While  I  cannot  satisfy  this  curiosity  by  writing  an 
autobiography,  such  persons  will  be  partially 
appeased  with  a  complete  view  of  my  literary 
career,  and  such  a  view  is  well  supplied  by  a 
chronologically  arranged  series  of  my  published 
writings.  For  these  fill  up  the  intervals  between 
the  books,  and  show,  as  nothing  else  can,  the  in- 
fluences that  were  at  work  in  these  intervals, 
leading  up,  as  it  were,  in  each  case  to  the  final 
effort  that  should  round  out  the  growing  volume 
of  thought,  of  which  the  minor  contributions  were 
but  premonitions,  the  mere  picket  skirmishes 
before  the  battle. 

The  objection  to  the  attempt  to  classify  the 
papers  by  subjects — botany,  geology,  paleontology, 
biology,  psychology,  anthropology,  sociology,  phi- 
losophy, etc. — is  that  all  these  subjects  are  mutu- 
ally related  and  cannot  be  wholly  separated.  Of 
course,  between  a  paper  in  which  I  describe  a 
hundred  new  species  of  fossil  plants  and  one  on  the 
principles  of  social  mechanics  there  seems  to  be  as 
wide  a  chasm  as  can  be  conceived  of,  but  when, 
under  social  statics,  which  is  one  of  the  great 
subdivisions  of  social  mechanics,  I  am  obliged 
to  range  the  principle  of  sympodial  dichotomy, 
supposed  to  be  a  strictly  botanical  principle,  and 
little  understood  by  botanists  themselves,  and 


PREFACE  xiii 

to  show  that  it  is  the  main  principle  governing 
cosmic,  organic,  and  social  evolution,  we  see  that 
the  two  apparently  so  remote  ends  of  the  series  are 
brought  together,  and  that  all  nature  is  ultimately 
one.  Still  more  intimately,  of  course,  are  biology, 
psychology,  anthropology,  and  sociology  inter- 
woven, and  all  attempts  to  treat  them  indepen- 
dently would  fail.  Certainly  such  would  be  the 
case  with  my  writings,  for  I  have  never  been  able 
to  treat  any  subject  except  in  its  relations  to  all 
other  subjects,  and  my  main  purpose  has  always 
been  to  point  out  those  relations. 

Another  objection  to  that  method  is  that  it 
would  necessarily  exclude  all  other  writings.  If 
a  few  of  the  supposed  best  papers  were  to  be  thus 
selected  the  remainder  of  the  supposed  inferior 
ones  would  have  no  claims.  If  the  cream  is 
skimmed  off,  the  milk  must  be  thrown  away. 
Now,  while  there  are,  no  doubt,  degrees  of  worthi- 
ness among  them,  such  degrees  are  not  always 
measured  by  the  length.  They  subsist  between  the 
longer  ones  as  well  as  between  the  long  and  the 
short.  They  also  depend  upon  the  reader's  judg- 
ment, and  I  would  not  assume  to  judge  for  him. 
With  a  very  few  exceptions,  each  of  my  papers, 
whatever  its  length,  contains  at  least  one  thought, 
and  many  of  these  thoughts  have  never  been 
expressed  but  once  by  me,  and  this  may  have  been 
in  a  small  and  seemingly  very  unimportant  paper. 

My  object  now  is  not,  of  course,  to  present  to 
the  world  a  connected  body  of  thought,  but  to 
put  into  accessible  form  all  the  thought  that  I  have 


xiv  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

ever  given  to  the  world.  This  these  volumes, 
taken  in  connection  with  my  books, will  accomplish. 
And  the  reader  will  find  between  the  essays  and 
the  books  as  little  repetition  as  he  finds  between 
the  books  the  mselves.  The  only  repetition  he  will 
find  anywhere  in  my  writings  is  such  as  neces- 
sarily arises  out  of  the  fact  that  they  all  belong 
to  a  single  system  of  thought,  emanating  from  a 
single  brain.  Even  from  those  who  know  my 
books  only,  the  criticism  has  not  been  that  of 
iteration,  but  of  the  reverse,  viz.,  inconsistency. 
To  such  criticism  my  reply,  in  so  far  as  I  have  ever 
made  any,  has  been  that  I  have  not  aimed  at  con- 
sistency, that  my  books  represent  the  growth  of 
my  mind  during  a  period  of  a  quarter  of  a  century, 
and  this  the  period  when  the  progress  of  the  world 
has  been  the  most  rapid  in  the  history  of  our  race. 
Under  such  circumstances  there  is  no  occasion  to 
apologize  for  inconsistencies.  A  consistent  writer 
would  be  one  who  wholly  failed  to  keep  pace  with 
the  age,  and  who  would  have  become  a  voice  from 
the  past. 

Now  in  these  minor  contributions  this  aspect 
of  the  subject  receives  a  special  emphasis.  If  my 
books  represent  the  growth  of  a  single  mind  during 
this  period,  my  lesser  efforts  show  the  precise 
manner  in  which  this  growth  took  place.  While 
the  books  may  indicate  the  changes  from  child- 
hood to  youth  and  from  youth  to  maturity,  the 
essays  show  the  metabolism,  so  to  speak,  of  my 
mind,  its  histological  development.  There  has 
been  psychic  differentiation  and  psychic  integra- 


PREFACE  xv 

tion  and  many  of  the  short  steps  have  been  thus 
recorded. 

But  these  essays  accomplish  other  things  be- 
sides this.  Many  of  them,  especially  the  later  ones, 
supplement  my  system,  as  set  forth  in  my  books, 
by  expanding  the  latter  along  special  lines.  Every 
writer  knows  that  in  order  to  preserve  symmetry 
in  his  books  he  must  resist  the  temptation  to  en- 
large special  subjects  out  of  proportion  to  others. 
If  these  subjects  are  to  be  enlarged,  it  must  be 
done  in  other  ways  and  places.  Thus  a  large  num- 
ber of  my  minor  contributions  are  simply  the  ex- 
tension of  threads  taken  up  in  the  books  and 
cut  short  in  deference  to  the  demands  of  literary 
form. 

But  it  must  be  admitted  that  many  of  the  very 
short  papers,  especially  the  early  ones,  are  really 
worthless,  certainly  not  worth  publishing  for  any 
intrinsic  merit,  and  it  will  naturally,  and  very 
properly,  be  asked,  why,  then,  include  them?  Even 
those  who  appreciate  my  contributions  as  a  whole 
may  fear  that  their  appearance  here,  for  the  most 
part  in  the  first  volume  and  near  its  beginning, 
and  therefore  just  where  the  reader  will  first  look, 
may  prejudice  many  against  the  whole,  and  cause 
them  to  throw  down  the  volume  in  disgust.  This 
seems  a  weighty  consideration,  and  has  not  been 
overlooked.  Auguste  Comte,  when  late  in  life  he 
decided  to  republish  his  early  papers  as  an  appen- 
dix to  the  fourth  volume  of  his  Politique  Positive, 
selected  six  of  these  for  the  purpose  and  virtually 
repudiated  the  rest  as  premature,  although  he 


xvi  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

admits  that  one  of  the  brightest  things  he  ever 
said1  is  to  be  found  in  one  of  them,  which  he 
fortunately  reproduces.2  Only  a  few  know  what 
other  gems  these  juvenile  productions  may  contain, 
for  most  of  them  were  anonymous,  and  some  were, 
with  Comte's  own  approval,  published  over  the 
signature  of  Saint  Simon,  whose  disciple  he  then 
acknowledged  himself  to  be,  and  therefore  it  will 
probably  never  be  possible  to  distinguish  them. 
It  was  a  question,  then,  whether  I  should  follow 
his  example,  or  whether  I  should  adhere  strictly 
to  the  principle  above  announced  of  including 
everything  that  possessed  the  two  qualities  of 
having  been  written  by  me  and  of  having  been 
printed.3  In  deciding  upon  the  latter  course  I 

1  "Tout  est  relatif ;  voila  le  seul  principe  absolu." 

*Politigue  Positive,  Tome  IV,  Appendice,  p.  ii. 

3  The  only  possible  exception  to  this  rule  would  be  a  case  in  which 
both  the  printed  article  and  the  manuscript  are  lost.  One  such  case 
has  occurred.  In  1868  a  man  by  the  name  of  Philip  H.  Reinhard,  then 
a  clerk  in  the  Internal  Revenue  Bureau  of  the  Treasury  Department, 
but  who  had  previously  been  connected  with  the  Washington  Chronicle, 
started  a  paper  which  he  called  the  Department  Journal,  devoted  to  the 
general  interests  of  the  Government  clerks,  and  he  came  round  solicit- 
ing contributions.  In  my  diary  for  Sept.  28,  1868,  I  say:  "In  the 
evening  I  sketched  an  article  about  the  classes  for  the  Department 
Journal,  which  I  got  to-day."  On  Sept.  30  I  wrote:  "Reinhard  came 
round  and  I  paid  him  for  the  Department  Journal  and  told  him  I  was 
going  to  send  him  that  article.  He  told  me  to  do  so,  and  I  rewrote  it 
and  sent  it."  On  Oct.  3,  I  say:  "The  Department  Journal  came,  along 
with  my  article  entire."  So  it  is  certain  that  I  wrote  the  article  and 
that  it  was  printed,  but  no  copy  of  the  Journal  was  preserved,  and  the 
above  is  absolutely  all  I  know  about  it,  not  even  remembering  the 
title.  I  think,  however,  that  I  know  what  it  was  about.  In  the 
classified  service  a  first  class  clerk  received  $1200  a  year,  a  second  class 
$1400,  a  third  class,  $1600,  and  a  fourth  class,  $1800.  This  had  been 
much  criticized,  and  it  had  been  urged  that  the  order  ought  to  be  re- 
versed so  that  the  first  class  should  receive  the  highest,  and  the  fourth, 


PREFACE 


xvn 


have  assumed  that  the  reader  is  a  reasonable 
being,  that  he,  after  reading  this  preface,  will 
know  what  to  expect,  and  that  he  will  make  the 
proper  allowance  for  all  the  circumstances.  I 
have,  moreover,  ample  reasons  for  believing, 
indeed,  for  knowing,  that  a  considerable  propor- 
tion of  readers  would  be  grievously  disappointed, 
as  I  myself  am  disappointed  with  Comte's  method, 
if  even  the  least  of  my  utterances  were  wanting  in 
this  place. 

An  essential  part  of  the  plan  here  adopted,  in 
full  line  with  the  predominantly  biographical 
character  of  the  work,  is  to  supply  to  each  article  a 
complete  historical  explanation  of  the  time  when, 
and  the  circumstances  under  which,  it  was  written 
and  published.  Connecting  this  with  the  subject 
of  the  preceding  paragraph,  I  may  add  that  this 
history  of  each  item  will  of  itself  contain  all  the 
apology  needed  for  its  existence.  As  the  whole 
represents  a  growth,  no  reasonable  person  will 
expect  that  the  beginnings  will  possess  the  same 
maturity  as  the  productions  of  my  later  life;  but 
it  is  possible,  and  some  have  said  this  of  my  books, 
that  the  natural  enthusiasm  that  characterizes 
youth  at  all  times,  may  lend  a  certain  quality  of 

the  lowest  salary.  There  was  a  story,  which  I  think  I  told  in  the 
article,  about  a  man  who  refused  a  fourth  class  clerkship,  saying  that 
if  he  could  not  have  first  class,  he  would  not  take  any.  The  article 
was  on  that  subject  at  any  rate.  If  I  could  have  found  even  the 
manuscript  it  would  have  had  to  go  in,  and  would  have  borne  date  Oct.  3f 
1868.  It  would  then  have  stood  between  Nos.  5  and  6  of  the  series,  and 
was  published  at  the  age  of  27.  It  would  have  also  added  one  to  the 
"Numerical  Bibliography"  (see  infra,  p.  liv). 
Other  analogous  cases  are  liable  to  arise. 


xviii  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

freshness  and  verve  not  present  in  my  later 
writings. 

But  I  have  not  been  content  to  write  a  historical 
sketch  of  each  article  or  item,  however  short  or 
insignificant.  In  order  to  make  the  biographical 
character  of  the  work  as  prominent  as  possible, 
I  have  also  written  historical  sketches  of  all  my 
books  and  of  all  other  excluded  matter,  which  I 
introduce  into  .the  exact  place  where  the  work 
would  fall  in  its  chronological  order.  Some  of 
these  sketches  are  .quite  extended,  much  longer 
than  most  of  those  of  the  lesser  publications,  on 
account  of  their  superior  importance.  That  of 
my  first  work,  Dynamic  Sociology,  is  the  longest  of 
all  the  histories,  and  that  of  The  Psychic  Factors 
of  Civilization  is  next  in  length.  Pure  Sociology 
and  Applied  Sociology  are  fully  treated,  and  my 
large  illustrated  monographs  on  fossil  plants  re- 
quired me  to  give  a  fairly  adequate  account  of 
my  activities  in  that  line.  The  work  therefore 
covers  the  entire  field  of  my  labors. 

Another  feature  to  which  I  attach  much  im- 
portance is  the  placing  over  each  article  the  exact 
date  of  its  appearance.  This  fixes  the  priority 
of  every  new  idea  I  have  ever  expressed.  Such 
ideas  have  often  been  written  and  otherwise  ex- 
pressed considerably  earlier,  but  I  am  content  to 
conform  to  the  rule  of  priority  in  all  the  sciences 
as  determined  by  the  date  of  publication,  as  the 
only  test  that  can  be  universally  applied.  In 
immediate  connection  with  this  date  of  publica- 
tion I  have,  as  a  matter  of  further  biographical 


PREFACE  xix 

interest,  appended  my  age  at  that  particular 
date. 

On  account  of  the  difficulty  in  consulting  the 
original  sources,  I  have  proposed  to  render  this 
unnecessary  by  giving  the  exact  pages  of  the  ori- 
ginal in  addition  to  those  of  the  volume  of  this 
work,  so  that  the  reader  may  safely  quote  any 
journal,  magazine,  or  volume  in  which  anything 
first  appeared. 

I  have  purposely  left  to  the  last  the  discussion 
of  the  general  title  that  I  have  decided  to  give  to 
the  work  as  a  whole.  Hints  as  to  the  reasons  for 
this  have,  indeed,  been  thrown  out,  but  some 
readers  may  prefer  a  fuller  statement  of  them. 
As  the  work  includes  everything,  even  the  driest 
descriptive  papers  and  catalogues  of  names,  it  is 
evident  that  no  single  term  or  phrase  could  be 
found  that  would  embrace  the  whole,  but  the 
number  of  these  original  researches,  for  one  who 
has  devoted  so  much  of  his  life  to  science,  is  very 
small.  This  may  be  interpreted  to  mean  that  I 
have  contributed  little  to  the  actual  increase  of 
knowledge  (see  infra,  pp.  Ixxix,  Ixxx).  I  have  never 
had  any  passion  for  the  multiplication  of  species. 
Only  when,  as  has  several  times  happened,  I 
have  found  myself  confronted  by  a  great  mass 
of  interesting  material,  usually  collected  by  my- 
self and  wholly  new  to  science,  have  I  felt 
called  upon  to  investigate  it,  describe  it,  and 
publish  it,  giving  names  to  forms  never  before 
seen  by  man.  But  even  in  such  cases  it  has  always 
been  the  new  knowledge  that  has  chiefly  interested 


xx  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

me,  and  not  the  number  of  new  species,  still  less 
the  new  names  that  I  was  obliged  to  give  to  them. 
Furthermore,  this  new  knowledge,  considered  as 
so  many  new  facts  resulting  from  my  researches, 
has  not  been  the  principal  charm  of  this  work.  It 
is  the  nature  of  a  great  flora  of  an  age  past  and  gone, 
and  the  relation  of  that  flora  to  the  present  flora 
of  the  globe,  and  of  the  floras  of  earlier  and  later 
geological  ages,  that  have  chiefly  interested  me, 
and  the  student  of  even  these  descriptive  papers 
cannot  fail  to  see  that  I  have  taken  every  possible 
occasion  to  emphasize  this  aspect,  and  to  inter- 
pret the  facts,  to  point  out  their  meaning,  which  to 
me  is  almost  their  only  value.  Even  when  break- 
ing the  rocks  to  obtain  the  specimens,  this  idea  of 
their  meaning  has  always  been  uppermost  in  my 
mind — mentem  et  malleum. 

But  even  if  there  are  exceptions,  it  may  still 
with  truth  be  said,  that  there  is  scarcely  a  paper  of 
mine,  however  modest  its  length,  that  does  not 
embody  a  thought.  I  see  all  things  in  their 
relations,  and  seek,  at  least,  to  put  every  fact  into 
its  appropriate  niche  in  a  general  scheme  of 
philosophy.  I  naturally  consider  everything  in 
its  relation  to  the  Cosmos,  every  fact  and  every 
truth  presents  itself  as  an  integral  part  of  the 
Whole.  Therefore  the  expression  of  a  thought 
always  means  an  attempt  to  gain  a  new  glimpse 
of  some  little  corner  of  this  infinite  Whole.  It  is 
not  a  question  here  of  the  extent  to  which  I  have 
succeeded  in  any  particular  case,  or  generally. 
It  is  simply  that  my  work  has  consisted  mainly 


PREFACE 


xxi 


in  an  effort  to  obtain  such  glimpses.  This  seems 
specially  true  of  these  minor  contributions,  and 
therefore  a  collection  of  these  may  be  appropri- 
ately named :  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS. 


History  of  the  Present  Work 

As  the  plan  of  this  work  requires  a  historical 
sketch  of  all  my  published  writings,  it  would  logi- 
cally include  such  a  sketch  of  the  work  itself. 
The  proper  place  for  this  sketch  seems  to  be  at 
the  beginning,  immediately  following  the  preface, 
of  which  it  may  be  regarded  as  a  supplementary 
part.  Already  in  that  something  has  been  said 
of  the  demand  for  such  a  work,  and  of  the  idea  I 
have  always  entertained  as  to  what  the  plan  and 
nature  of  it  ought  to  be.  The  sketch  will  therefore 
be  practically  confined  to  giving  an  account  of 
how  the  plan  was  carried  out,  of  the  method  of 
accomplishing  it,  of  the  research  required,  and 
of  the  assistance  I  have  received  in  executing  it. 

The  last  of  the  above-named  considerations  is 
the  first  to  be  mentioned,  because  it  was  the  sine 
qua  non  of  my  even  undertaking  it.  I  always 
saw  how  great  a  task  it  would  be,  and  I  should 
never  have  laid  aside  other  work  for  so  long  a 
period  without  not  merely  the  spur  of  outside 
pressure,  but  the  promise  that  most  of  the  labori- 
ous part  of  it  would  be  done  by  another.  This 
does  not  mean  the  mechanical  work  only,  but  the 
critical  literary  work  of  bringing  the  materials 


xxiv  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

into  order  and  making  of  them  a  methodical  and 
symmetrical  literary  structure.  The  drudgery 
research  work  has  rather  fallen  to  me,  while  the 
higher  and  more  truly  editorial  part  has  been 
voluntarily,  cheerfully,  ably,  and  I  may  add,  en- 
thusiastically done  by  another.  It  is  to  Mrs. 
Emily  Palmer  Cape  of  New  York  that  I  am 
indebted  for  this  service. 

On  Oct.  2,  1905,  Mrs.  Cape  wrote  requesting 
me  to  send  her  copies  of  my  article  in  the 
Independent  on  Herbert  Spencer's  Sociology,  and 
not  long  after  that  she  read  the  Text-book  of 
Sociology,  and  the  Psychic  Factors  of  Civilization. 
Of  these  books  she  wrote  me  on  Oct.  19,  1908,  a 
very  laudatory  letter.  My  views  seemed  to  take 
a  marvelous  hold  of  her.  I  may  say  here,  once  for 
all,  that  although  comparatively  few  are  attracted 
by  them,  those  few  are  mostly  very  strongly 
attracted,  and  some  are  peculiarly  captivated. 
Mrs.  Cape  belongs  to  this  last  small  class,  and  she 
did  not  stop  till  she  had  read  all  my  books.  About 
this  time  I  sent  her  all  I  still  had  of  my  various 
reprints,  but  all  the  earlier  ones  had  long  been 
exhausted.  She  read  all  I  sent  her,  and  desired 
to  know  where  others  could  be  found.  I  referred 
her  to  some,  but  the  greater  part  were  practically 
inaccessible  to  ordinary  readers.  Like  most  readers 
she  was  much  interested  in  the  author  of  these 
writings,  and  wanted  biographical  information.  I 
gratified  her  as  far  as  I  could,  and  even  sent  her  an 
old  biographical  sketch  that  I  had  long  possessed. 
She  soon  commenced  agitating  the  question  of  the 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PRESENT  WORK        xxv 

republication  in  some  form  of  all  my  scattered 
papers,  and  offered  to  help  the  matter  in  any  way 
she  could,  as  she  had  much  leisure.  I  finally  told 
her  that  if  she  would  edit  the  work,  I  would 
furnish  the  material  for  it,  and  she  gladly  accepted 
the  proposition.  This  is  exactly  what  was  done, 
and  the  present  work  is  the  result. 

I  was  sure  that  I  could  furnish  the  material, 
for,  with  a  single  exception,  I  had  preserved  every 
article  of  mine  that  had  ever  been  published,  and 
they  had  all  been  collected  and  pasted  into  scrap- 
books  as  fast  as  they  appeared,  making  twenty-five 
volumes  of  such  scrap-books.  But  besides  the  one 
copy  thus  permanently  preserved,  I  had  always 
tried  to  keep  several  additional  copies  and  reprints 
of  my  articles,  and  these  latter  at  least  were 
available  as  manuscript  for  the  collected  essays. 
How  far  I  could  go  with  this,  and  how  to  supply 
the  manuscript  for  the  entire  work,  remained  to 
be  seen. 

I  early  decided  to  prefix  to  each  article  a  his- 
torical sketch,  informing  the  reader  just  when  and 
under  what  circumstances  it  was  written  and 
published,  and  the  first  task  was,  therefore,  the 
collection  of  the  data  for  these  sketches.  I  could 
not  of  course  rely  upon  my  memory,  and  I  saw 
that  I  should  be  wholly  dependent  upon  records. 
But  I  had  records  of  various  kinds,  so  that  when  one 
source  failed  I  could  usually  fall  back  upon  another. 
The  following  are  the  principal  sources  from  which 
I  must  derive  my  information.  The  first,  and  great 
reservoir,  was  my  diaries.  I  have  kept  a  diary 


xxvi  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

since  1860,  or  from  the  age  of  19,  and  only  one  thing 
that  I  ever  wrote  was  printed  prior  to  that  date. 
For  the  greater  part  of  the  time  I  have  carried  to 
a  special  book  or  place  the  record  of  what  I  re- 
garded as  the  principal  happenings  of  my  life,  and 
since  the  beginning  of  my  scientific  career,  I 
have  paid  special  attention  in  this  respect  to  my 
literary  productions,  justly  regarding  them  as  the 
leading  elements  in  my  history.  The  dates  of 
writing  my  essays  are  usually  recorded,  and  also 
the  date  of  their  appearance.  In  writing  my  books 
I  always  gave  the  time  when  chapters  and  special 
topics  were  begun  and  completed. 

Besides  my  diaries,  which  were  intended  to  cover 
all  private  operations,  I  have  always  used  scientific 
note-books,  first  my  botanical  note-books,  and 
then,  from  the  beginning  of  my  geological  and 
paleontological  researches,  my  official  note-books 
on  those  subjects,  but  these  latter,  belonging  as 
they  do,  to  the  United  States  Government,  I  left 
in  Washington  when  I  was  called  to  Brown  Uni- 
versity in  1906,  and  they  were  not  at  my  hand  here 
in  Providence.  I  have  occasionally  consulted 
them  when  in  Washington  since  I  began  this  work. 

The  next  most  fertile  source  for  the  data  re- 
quired was  the  extensive  scrap-book  system. 
I  do  not  now  refer  to  the  twenty-five  albums  above 
mentioned  which  contain  the  printed  documents 
themselves,  but  to  the  three  series  entitled  re- 
spectively: "Reviews  and  Press  Notices,"  "Auto- 
graph Letters,"  and  "Biography."  The  first 
and  third  of  these  consist  of  seven  volumes  each, 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PRESENT  WORK      xxvii 

and  the  second  of  nine  volumes.  A  brief  account 
of  how  the  first  series  was  inaugurated  by  Mrs. 
Ward  is  given  in  my  historical  sketch  of  Dynamic 
Sociology  (No.  145). x  The  other  two  series  were 
begun  by  her  soon  after  she  started  the  first,  and 
all  three  were  kept  up  every  year  as  long  as  her 
health  permitted.  Since  her  health  broke  down 
I  have  continued  them  as  nearly  along  the  lines 
adopted  by  her  as  possible.  I  had  previously 
kept  all  this  material  in  certain  drawers  in  my 
study  year  after  year,  and  occasionally  I  would 
greatly  need  something  that  I  knew  I  had,  and 
proceed  to  make  a  prolonged  search  for  it,  often 
without  success.  The  embodiment  of  it  all  in 
these  albums,  arranged  in  exact  chronological  order 
for  each  of  the  three  series,  was  a  measure  abso- 
lutely indispensable  to  my  work.  But  not  content 
with  this,  and  in  order  to  be  able  to  command  any 
document  with  certainty  and  dispatch,  I  made  a 
thorough  card  index  of  the  whole,  sparing  no  pains 
to  cross-index  every  name,  subject,  or  word  on 
every  page.  This  great  card  catalogue  is  now  kept 
in  a  standard  library  case  along  with  a  number  of 
others  relating  to  my  literary  work.  The  series  of 

'All  references  to  books,  articles,  sketches,  etc.,  will  be  by  the  cur- 
rent numbers,  and  these  will  be  printed  in  heavy  type.  The  volumes 
and  pages  can  then  be  found  by  consulting  the  table  of  contents, 
which  is  arranged  by  these  numbers.  As  the  references  must  be  either 
to  the  historical  sketch  or  to  the  article,  this  fact  will  usually  be  stated. 
If  the  sketch  is  long  its  position  will  sometimes  be  indicated,  as: 
"beginning  of  sketch,"  "end  of  sketch,"  etc.  If  the  reference  is  to 
the  article  and  this  is  a  long  one,  the  original  page  will  be  given. 
As  this  is  always  placed  in  the  margin  ("boxed"),  it  will  be  easy  to 
find  it. 


xxviii  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

"Reviews  and  Press  Notices,"  and  that  of  "Auto- 
graph Letters"  require  no  explanation,  but  a  word 
may  be  in  place  here  relative  to  the  third  series 
labeled  "Biography."  It  is  a  sort  of  "omnium 
gatherum  "  of  just  about  everything  else  pertaining 
to  my  personal  history.  All  notices  of  meetings 
of  societies  before  which  I  was  to  read  papers 
may  here  be  found,  along  with  a  vast  number 
of  other  things — appointments  to  office,  promo- 
tions, transfers  and  changes  of  every  kind;  diplo- 
mas, certificates,  and  all  papers  of  that  class,  etc., 
etc. — This  series  also  contains  many  letters  which 
are  not  preserved  for  any  intrinsic  value  in  them- 
selves, but  as  records  of  operations  to  which  they 
relate.  As  Mrs.  Ward  used  to  express  it,  they 
are  "things  that  I  have  been  asked  to  do  and 
things  that  I  have  done."  These  series  of  scrap- 
books  constitute  an  almost  inexhaustible,  and  quite 
indispensable  source  to  draw  upon  in  the  work  in 
question. 

Another  very  important  resort  in  critical  cases 
has  been  the  letter  files.  Of  course  all  letters  could 
not  be  embodied  in  the  autograph  letter  albums, 
and  the  greater  number  of  the  less  important  ones 
remain  in  the  files,  which  run  back  as  far  as  1888. 
Official  letters,  going  back  still  farther,  are  pre- 
served in  files  at  the  U.  S.  National  Museum,  and 
were  occasionally  consulted.  As  for  most  of  my 
official  term  I  dictated  all  letters  to  a  typist,  who 
always  used  a  carbon  sheet  and  took  a  second  im- 
pression, these  official  files  are  in  two  series  of 
"letters  received"  and  "letters  sent,"  so  that  my 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PRESENT  WORK       xxix 

letters,  as  well  as  those  of  others  to  me,  are  thus 
preserved. 

It  was  evident  that  the  first  work  to  be  done 
was  to  take  up  my  private  diaries,  read  them  all 
systematically  and  carefully,  and  extract  from  them 
every  item  of  interest  in  connection  with  my 
entire  literary  career.  Under  the  spur  of  Mrs. 
Cape's  insistent  zeal  and  enlightened  interest  I 
began  this  work  on  Oct.  6,  1909.  In  this  work 
she  could  render  me  only  moral  assistance,  and  it 
was  many  months  before  she  could  begin  that 
substantial  cooperation  which  has  at  last  brought 
our  task  to  a  close. 

I  had  always  kept  a  list  of  the  titles  of  my  arti- 
cles and  books,  entered  immediately  upon  receipt 
of  the  first  copy,  and  therefore  in  practically 
chronological  order,  and  a  first  column  of  this  list 
recorded  the  number  that  it  was  to  bear.  In 
placing  the  papers  in  the  publication  series  of  scrap- 
books,  this  number  was  affixed,  so  that  the  biblio- 
graphic list  and  the  volumes  corresponded  in  the 
matter  of  numbers  and  in  the  order  of  succession. 
This  system  is  still  kept  up  independently  of  this 
work,  and  the  last  bibliographic  number  at  the  time 
(December,  1912)  the  present  sketch  goes  to  press 
is  527.  -But  there  have  been  interpolations,  and 
in  the  course  of  the  present  elaboration  a  number 
of  items  have  been  found  that  were  overlooked,  so 
that  the  grand  total,  as  represented  by  the  "cur- 
rent numbers, "  presently  to  be  described,  has  now 
reached  561. 

Now,  my  plan  was,  as  I  read  the  diaries,  to  have 


xxx  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

by  me  slips  of  paper  of  uniform  size  and  shape,  in 
the  upper  left-hand  corner  of  each  of  which  was 
written  the  bibliographic  number  of  the  article 
in  question,  and  across  the  top,  its  title.  Following 
this,  I  would  record  the  date  of  all  the  entries  found 
in  the  diaries  in  any  way  alluding  to  it.  With  the 
list  before  me  I  could  always  identify  the  article 
and  write  the.  date  on  the  slip  corresponding.  In 
this  way,  when  all  through,  these  slips  would  tell 
precisely  on  what  dates  every  article  had  ever 
been  mentioned,  and  as  the  diaries  were  read  in 
exact  chronological  order,  these  dates  would 
also  stand  in  that  order.  These  slips  were  called 
"history  slips,"  and  when  I  got  entirely  through 
they  contained  every  item  of  information  about 
every  article  that  all  my  diaries  give. 

The  work  was  slow,  but  by  the  end  of  October 
I  had  brought  it  down  to  1875,  when  my  scientific 
activity  began.  By  the  end  of  1 909 1  had  advanced 
to  1894.  On  Feb.  19,  1910,  I  brought  the  work 
down  to  that  date.  The  next  step  was  to  get  the 
reprints  of  the  articles  out  of  the  files  in  which 
they  had  always  been  kept  along  with  the  manu- 
scripts, whenever  these  existed.  This  was  done 
from  March  6-20,  1910,  and  the  history  slips  were 
placed  with  the  articles.  Even  in  that  crude  form 
it  made  a  very  bulky  pile  of  matter.  I  was  then 
ready  to  commence  writing  the  sketches,  but  this 
was  delayed  to  decide  upon  a  title  for  the  entire 
work,  draw  up  the  title-page,  and  write  the  preface. 

I  had  all  along  a  distinct  recollection  that  I 
long  before  had  proposed  to  myself  to  call  such  a 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PRESENT  WORK       xxxi 

work  Glimpses  of  the  Cosmos,  should  it  ever  be 
undertaken,  and  I  found  among  my  miscellaneous 
papers  a  slip  on  which  was  written  that  name 
followed  by  the  words:  "Proposed  title  for  my 
Collected  Essays."  It  bore  no  date,  but  I  have 
some  recollection  of  writing  it  a  good  while  after 
I  had  formulated  it  in  my  mind,  fearing  that  I 
might  forget  it.  A  rough  estimate  would  put  the 
date  at  about  1904.  The  phrase  was  probably 
first  framed  in  my  mind  in  1901.  At  any  rate  it 
was  on  March  21,  1910,  that  I  wrote  in  my  diary: 
"I  struck  the  first  blow  towards  the  preparation 
of  manuscript  for  the  republication  of  my  Lesser 
Published  Writings  by  drawing  up  the  title  page 
and  commencing  to  write  the  preface.  I  call  the 
series,  as  I  decided  several  years  ago:  Glimpses 
of  the  Cosmos.1'  In  my  Record  of  Work  of  that 
date  I  say:  "Commenced  preparing  the  manu- 
script of  a  great  work  to  consist  of  the  republi- 
cation in  chronological  order  of  all  my  lesser 
published  writings.  The  title  long  ago  decided 
upon  is:  Glimpses  of  the  Cosmos.  The  history  of 
every  article  is  to  be  given,  and  the  place  of 
original  publication." 

On  March  24,  1910,  I  finished  the  preface  and 
commenced  writing  the  sketches.  In  many  cases, 
especially  in  the  early  items,  the  only  copy  I 
possessed  was  the  one  pasted  in  the  scrap-book, 
while  in  the  first  one  of  all  I  had  nothing  but  a 
rough  draft  of  the  manuscript,  and  the  printed 
papers  are  lost.  The  plan  was  to  reproduce  all 
these  missing  documents  by  copying  them,  either 


xxxii  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

from  the  scrap-books  or  from  the  volumes  or  works 
in  which  they  appeared.  Where  copies  of  the 
printed  papers,  or  reprints,  existed,  these  were  to 
be  pasted  on  sheets  of  uniform  size,  so  that  there 
should  result  a  manuscript  for  the  printer  of  a 
neat  and  uniform  character.  I  wrote  my  sketches 
on  paper  of  the  same  size,  viz.,  on  blocks  of  ordinary 
letter  paper  IO1/.  X  8  inches  in  dimensions.  This 
rule  was  followed  throughout.  All  that  I  did  was 
to  write  the  sketches,  and  Mrs.  Cape  attended  to 
the  rest.  As  she  lived  in  New  York,  I  had  to 
send  her  her  work,  and  the  first  instalment  was 
dispatched  to  her  on  March  28th.  She  used  a 
typewriter  and  made  a  neat  manuscript  of  all 
the  parts  requiring  to  be  copied.  She  arranged 
the  printed  matter  skilfully  and  pasted  it  on  the 
blank  sheets  in  due  order,  making,  when  preceded 
by  my  sketches,  a  very  handsome  appearance. 
She  brought  me  to  Providence  this  first  instalment 
of  her  work  on  April  23d,  and  we  compared  it 
carefully  with  original  sources.  It  covered  197 
folios.  A  second  package  was  returned  to  me  by 
her  on  June  I4th. 

I  had  to  spend  six  weeks  in  Madison,  Wis.,  in 
the  summer  of  1910,  giving  courses  of  lectures  at 
the  University.  As  they  were  the  same  lectures 
that  I  give  at  Brown  University,  they  required 
little  preparation,  and  I  knew  that  I  should  have 
much  leisure  time.  I  therefore  decided  to  take 
this  work  along  and  continue  it  there.  Mrs.  Cape 
wished  to  hear  my  lectures,  and  accompanied  me 
to  Madison.  We  arranged  to  cooperate  in  this 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PRESENT  WORK     xxxiii 

work  there,  and  she  rented  a  typewriter.  We 
secured  rooms  in  the  same  house  so  as  to  facilitate 
operations,  which  were  carried  on  with  great 
success  from  June  26th  to  August  yth. 

On  July  1 8th,  I  commenced  making  a  thorough 
card  index  of  the  manuscript.  One  of  my  greatest 
desires  had  always  been  to  be  able  to  command 
the  contents  of  my  own  writings.  Over  and  over 
again  I  had  wished  to  know  when  and  where  I  had 
made  some  statement  or  uttered  some  truth,  but 
scattered  as  my  papers  were,  I  could  rarely  find 
the  passage.  I  saw  that  a  complete  index  of  this 
manuscript  would  place  my  entire  life-work  within 
my  reach,  and  I  cared  quite  as  much  for  this  as 
for  the  republication  of  my  essays.  I  had  reached 
a  point  where  I  could  not  advance  with  the  com- 
pilation, and  many  hundred  folios  were  completed 
ready  to  be  indexed.  This  great  index  was  the 
most  laborious  of  all  the  tasks  undertaken.  I 
made  it  exhaustive,  embracing  not  merely  names 
and  facts,  but  also  ideas;  and  many  ideas  that 
I  later  used  special  phrases  to  express  are  indexed 
under  such  phrases  in  places  where  they  were 
expressed  in  other  ways  long  before  I  had  formu- 
lated the  appropriate  terms.  This  work  hung 
on  long  after  all  else  was  done,  and  was  not  finally 
completed  till  November  26,  1911.  It  contains 
about  10,000  standard  library  cards. 

The  work  was  all  sent  back  to  Providence,  and 
I  continued  there  to  write  the  historical  sketches. 
As  fast  as  they  were  finished  I  placed  them  with 
the  reprints  and  sent  them  to  Mrs.  Cape  to  put 


xxxiv  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

in  final  form.  Down  to  August  29th  I  had  not 
contemplated  writing  the  histories  of  my  books 
nor  of  any  of  the  other  things  omitted  under  the 
rule,  but  it  occurred  to  me  that  the  introduction 
of  such  sketches  would  greatly  improve  the  work, 
as  then  it  would,  to  that  extent,  include  all  my 
writings,  and  constitute  a  complete  biography, 
so  far  as  my  literary  contributions  are  concerned. 
I  had  then  proceeded  with  the  sketches  to  my 
third  book,  Outlines  of  Sociology,  and  I  decided  to 
write  the  sketch  of  that  and  put  it  in  its  chronolo- 
gical place,  and  thereafter  to  treat  all  the  excluded 
matter  in  the  same  way.  Of  course  this  plan 
considerably  increased  the  work. 

Pure  Sociology  was  reached  on  Sept.  28th,  and 
Applied  Sociology  on  Oct.  nth.  The  last  sketch 
was  written  Oct.  28th,  but  it  remained  to  go  back 
and  write  those  of  the  omitted  ones,  antedating 
my  decision  to  write  them.  There  were  only  seven 
of  these,  viz.,  Guide  to  the  Flora  of  Washington 
and  Vicinity,  1881;  Dynamic  Sociology,  1883; 
Sketch  of  Paleobotany,  1886;  Synopsis  of  the  Flora 
of  the  Laramie  Group,  1887;  Types  of  the  Laramie 
Flora,  1887;  Geographical  Distribution  of  Fossil 
Plants,  1890;  and  The  Psychic  Factors  of  Civilization, 
1893.  The  first  of  these  was  written  Nov.  25th- 
27th.  I  began  to  write  the  history  of  Dynamic 
Sociology  on  Nov.  27th,  but  I  had  previously  spent 
many  hours  in  systematically  rereading  all  my 
diaries  covering  the  1 4-year  period  during  which 
I  was  writing  it,  with  special  reference  to  that 
work.  I  had  also  carefully  read  all  the  rejected 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PRESENT  WORK      xxxv 

manuscripts  written  during  that  period,  including 
the  large  one  on  "Education."  The  sketch  was 
finished  on  Dec.  8th,  and  is  the  longest  of  the  entire 
series,  occupying  115  folios.  It  is  the  history  of 
14  of  the  most  critical  years  of  my  life.  The 
history  of  the  Sketch  of  Paleobotany,  my  first 
large  illustrated  memoir  published  by  the  U.  S. 
Geological  Survey,  was  written  entirely  on  De- 
cember nth;  that  of  the  Synopsis  of  the  Flora  of 
the  Laramie  Group,  the  second  of  these  memoirs 
similarly  published,  was  begun  on  the  I2th  and 
finished  on  the  I5th;  that  of  the  Types  of  the 
Laramie  Flora,  containing  the  descriptions  of  the 
species  and  published  as  an  octavo  Bulletin  with 
repetition  of  the  illustrations,  was  wholly  written 
on  the  1 6th;  and  that  of  the  Geographical  Distri- 
bution of  Fossil  Plants,  the  third  large  memoir 
published  in  the  Annual  Reports  of  the  Survey, 
was  begun  on  the  last-named  date  and  finished  on 
the  i yth.  . 

This  work  was  then  temporarily  suspended  on 
account  of  the  approach  of  the  Christmas  holidays, 
which  were  spent  in  Washington,  but  there  were 
several  pieces  of  work  that  could  be  done  during 
this  season  better  than  at  any  other  time.  They 
were  mostly  in  the  nature  of  library  work.  In 
writing  the  sketches  there  were  many  occasions 
on  which  it  was  impossible  for  me  to  give  the 
complete  reference  to  a  book  or  a  fact,  and  I 
would  leave  blank  spaces  for  their  insertion  when 
found.  On  Dec.  10,  1910,  I  commenced  going 
through  the  manuscript  and  taking  out  all  folios 


xxxvi  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

on  which  incomplete  references  occurred.  Mrs. 
Cape  had  a  large  amount  of  the  matter  in  New 
York,  and  on  my  way  to  Washington  I  stopped 
there  and  took  her  an  additional  package.  While 
in  Washington  I  made  several  visits  to  the  Library 
of  Congress  and  searched  for  the  references,  usually 
with  success.  On  my  way  back  on  Jan.  2,  1911, 
I  stopped  again  in  New  York  and  brought  to 
Providence  all  the  work  that  Mrs.  Cape  had 
completed. 

After  working  in  all  these  corrections,  I  took  up 
on  Jan.  5th,  the  historical  sketch  of  The  Psychic 
Factors  of  Civilization.  Next  to  that  of  Dynamic 
Sociology,  this  was  the  longest,  and  also  the  most 
laborious,  of  all  the  sketches.  It  was  finished  on 
Jan.  nth.  This  completed  the  omitted  ones,  and 
my  part  of  the  work  in  furnishing  the  manuscript 
of  the  Glimpses  of  the  Cosmos  was  done. 

I  had  all  along  intended,  as  soon  as  all  the  articles 
were  completed,  to  examine  each  one  critically 
with  a  view  to  determining  the  exact  date  of 
publication.  Thus  far  they  had  been  arranged 
in  practically  the  same  order  as  that  in  which  they 
stand  on  my  bibliographic  list  and  in  the  albums, 
i.  e.,  according  to  the  numbers  given  them  as  fast 
as  received.  But  there  were  cases  in  which  I 
knew  that  this  was  not  the  order  of  their  appear- 
ance, and  I  had  changed  them.  This,  however, 
needed  to  be  done  systematically  and  critically, 
and  on  Jan.  12,  1911,  I  began  this  work. 

The  determination  of  the  true  date  of  publi- 
cation proved  very  difficult  in  many  cases.  For 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PRESENT  WORK    xxxvii 

daily  and  weekly  periodicals  it  was  of  course  easy, 
as  one  must  accept  the  dates  they  bear  whether 
they  were  actually  issued  on  those  dates  or  not. 
They  usually  are.  But  for  monthly  periodicals, 
the  practice  varies.  Some  appear  promptly  on 
the  first  day  of  the  month,  the  most  enterprising 
ones  often  a  day  or  two  in  advance  of  that.  Others, 
especially  the  more  scientific  ones,  to  which  I 
chiefly  contributed,  were  content  to  come  out  any 
time  during  the  month,  and  usually  toward  the 
end  of  it.  This  is  still  more  true  of  bimonthly 
and  quarterly  journals.  In  such  cases  it  is  often 
difficult  to  ascertain  the  exact  date  at  which  they 
appeared.  As  I  always  ordered  reprints  of  my 
articles,  these  would  often  be  sent  me  in  advance  of 
the  number  containing  them.  I  have  never  re- 
garded this  as  publication.  As  I  could  not  be  a 
subscriber  to  all  these  journals,  I  must  learn  in 
some  way  just  when  they  did  appear,  and  it 
was  not  usually  convenient  to  do  this.  I  would 
generally  neglect  the  matter  entirely  and  content 
myself  with  my  reprints,  the  receipt  of  which 
would  fix  the  date  at  which  they  would  be  entered 
in  my  bibliography  list.  There  were  other  much 
more  troublesome  cases.  The  worst  of  all  were 
the  Government  publications.  The  Government 
Printing  Office  followed  the  rule  of  dating  the  work 
at  the  time  that  it  was  cast.  But  there  was  al- 
ways a  long  delay  before  such  volumes  actually 
appeared.  This  often  amounted  to  an  entire 
year,  or  even  two  years.  Another  complication 
arose  here  by  the  practice  of  issuing  these  scientific 


xxxviii  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

publications  as  executive  documents,  and  as  parts 
of  the  President's  "Message  and  Documents," 
and  sending  them  immediately  to  Senators  and 
members  of  Congress  for  distribution  to  their 
constituents,  long  before  the  differently  bound 
documents  were  supplied  to  the  Bureaus  from 
which  they  emanated.  It  has  been  impossible  to 
learn  the  date  of  issue  of  the  executive  documents, 
and  I  have  been  obliged  to  take  as  the  date  of 
these  volumes  that  at  which  they  were  received 
by  the  Geological  Survey,  National  Museum,  etc. 
In  some  such  cases,  therefore,  the  date  here  given 
may  be  considerably  later  than  the  earliest  issue. 

These  dates,  as  nearly  exact  as  I  could  determine 
them,  I  wrote  over  the  top  of  each  article,  essay, 
or  item  in  the  entire  series,  and  arranged  the  whole 
precisely  in  this  order,  whatever  inconsistencies  of 
other  kinds  it  might  involve,  some  of  which  re- 
quired explanation. 

Another  feature  that  I  introduced  at  the  same 
time  was  to  have  these  dates  of  the  appearance 
of  the  articles  followed  by  a  number  indicating 
my  age  at  that  date.  In  biographies,  and  especi- 
ally autobiographies,  it  is  customary  to  place  the 
age  of  the  subject  over  the  pages,  following  the 
Latin  abbreviation  "jEtat."  This  might  be  done 
in  this  case,  but  it  seems  better  to  let  it  stand  over 
each  item,  as  indicating  at  precisely  what  age  that 
particular  piece  of  work  was  completed  and  saw 
the  light.  In  all  the  sketches  I  have  stated  ex- 
actly when  each  was  written,  and  thus  the  history 
is  made  complete. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PRESENT  WORK     xxxix 

For  all  the  work  done  at  Madison,  amounting  to 
some  400  folios,  Mrs.  Cape  had  written  the  page 
numbers  with  the  typewriter,  but  now  that  we 
were  separated,  and  I  must  resume  indexing,  I 
was  obliged  to  do  this  numbering  myself,  and  I 
did  it  with  a  soft  lead  pencil  (A.  W.  Faber,  "Cas- 
tell, "  46).  Of  course  this  could  only  be  done  as 
fast  as  Mrs.  Cape  had  completed  her  work  of 
preparing  the  manuscript,  but  on  Jan.  16,  1911,  I 
was  able  to  send  her  a  large  package  which  when 
completed  carried  the  work  to  folio  3800.  The 
work  of  dating  the  sketches  was  begun  on  Jan. 
1 2th.  On  the  226. 1  had  dated  all  that  were  still  in 
my  hands.  It  carried  it  to  the  year  1900.  I  first 
saw  that  these  were  arranged  in  exact  order  of 
dates,  and  then  I  resumed  the  work  of  indexing 
the  manuscript,  on  which  nothing  had  been  done 
since  we  left  Madison  in  August,  1910.  It  had 
then  been  brought  down  to  the  history  of  Dynamic 
Sociology,  and  about  my  first  work  was  to  index 
that  sketch.  I  made  some  additions  to  it  on  Feb- 
ruary 2,  increasing  its  length  by  some  dozen 
folios.  I  then  resumed  indexing,  and  I  record  that 
folio  1544  was  reached  on  Feb.  yth.  On  the  nth 
Mrs.  Cape  came  to  Providence,  bringing  with  her 
a  large  package  of  manuscript  which  she  had  com- 
pleted. We  compared  her  copies  with  the  originals 
in  the  usual  way.  On  the  I5th  I  sent  her  another 
large  package,  containing  the  last  of  the  matter, 
and  she  proceeded  to  edit  it  in  the  same  way  as 
the  rest.  I  lost  some  time  in  late  February  and 
early  March  through  illness,  but  did  all  I  could  on 


xl  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

the  index,  making  some  progress.  On  March 
22d  I  went  to  Washington  for  the  Easter  re- 
cess, taking  with  me  considerable  more  library 
work  of  the  same  class  as  before,  and  was  very 
successful  in  completing  references  and  supplying 
deficiencies.  I  returned  on  the  28th.  My  health 
being  restored,  I  resumed  the  index  work.  On 
the  3Oth  I  made  quite  extensive  additions  to  my 
sketch  of  The  Psychic  Factors  of  Civilization,  which 
I  was  then  ready  to  commence  indexing. 

I  did  not  number  all  the  folios  at  once  for  fear 
something  might  happen  to  disturb  the  order, 
which  was  now  so  essential.  By  a  rough  count  I 
had  divided  the  entire  manuscript  up  into  four 
packages  or  piles  of  approximately  1000  folios, 
each,  it  appearing  to  contain  about  4000  folios. 
I  would  number  one  thousand-page  package  and 
index  that,  then  number  another,  and  so  on.  The 
sketch  of  the  Psychic  Factors  begins  on  page  1734, 
and  that  of  the  Outlines  of  Sociology  on  page  3317. 
On  April  ist  I  had  numbered  the  folios  to  the  last- 
named  sketch.  I  stopped  at  this  point  to  inaugu- 
rate a  very  important  inquiry  and  to  settle  a 
question  that  had  been  greatly  interesting  Mrs. 
Cape  and  myself  almost  from  the  beginning.  It 
was  nothing  less  than  the  question  of  how  big  a 
thing  these  Glimpses  of  the  Cosmos  were  going  to 
be  when  finished. 

The  manuscript  is  so  heterogeneous  in  its 
character  that  it  furnishes  no  basis  for  estimating 
the  amount  of  matter  in  it.  When  we  say  that  it 
consists  of  about  4000  folios  this  conveys  no 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PRESENT  WORK         xli 

adequate  idea.  The  folios  are  of  many  different 
kinds,  varying  greatly  in  the  number  of  words  on 
each.  My  sketches  are  written  in  a  large  hand 
with  a  coarse  pen  (see  infra,  No.  523,  early  part  of 
sketch),  and  do  not  contain  much  more  than  200 
words  to  the  page.  The  typewritten  matter, 
which  is  considerable,  probably  contains  500  or  600 
words  to  the  page.  The  rest  is  mostly  printed 
matter,  but  the  size  of  page,  the  type,  and  the 
leading  are  so  different  that  it  is  hard  to  strike 
any  sort  of  average.  After  revolving  the  subject 
fully  over  in  our  minds  we  decided  that  the  only 
safe  basis  for  an  estimate  would  be  an  actual  count 
of  words.  The  labor  involved  in  this  was  appalling 
to  contemplate,  but  Mrs.  Cape  volunteered  to  do 
it,  and  it  was  decided  to  solve  the  problem  defini- 
tively and  with  absolute  certainty  by  that  method. 
In  order  to  facilitate  so  great  a  work  I  devised  a 
register  in  which  to  record  the  results.  There  were 
several  other  objects  that  I  desired  to  accomplish, 
which  such  a  register  could  be  made  to  secure  at  the 
same  time.  In  the  first  place,  there  had  been  so 
many  changes  in  the  position  of  the  articles, 
rendered  necessary  in  order  to  arrange  them  in  the 
strict  chronological  order  of  their  appearance,  that 
the  old  bibliography  numbers  no  longer  marked 
their  position,  and  it  was  desirable  to  renumber 
them  all  in  the  final  order  in  which  they  now  stood. 
The  first  column  of  this  register  was  therefore  to 
give  their  new  "current  numbers."  The  second 
column  was  devoted  to  the  old  bibliography 
numbers,  which  were  still  very  convenient.  A 


xlii  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

third  and  wider  column  was  introduced  to  contain 
the  intralimital  manuscript  folio  numbers  of  each 
article.  A  fourth  column,  which  has  proved  very 
useful,  gives  the  volume  and  page  of  the  scrap-book 
or  album  in  which  the  retained  reprints  of  the 
articles  were  placed  as  fast  as  they  were  received, 
and  which  were  our  main  dependence  for  the  origi- 
nals. It  was  in  the  fifth  column  of  this  register, 
thus  devised,  that  the  result  of  the  count  of  words 
of  each  article  was  to  be  recorded.  A  sixth  column 
was  left  in  which  to  indicate  the  volume  of  the 
completed  work  when  all  matters  relating  to  form, 
size,  and  make-up,  should  be  decided.  I  prepared 
this  register  in  a  blank  book  adapted  to  the  purpose, 
and  for  my  part  of  the  work  I  undertook  to  fill  in 
the  matter  of  the  first  four  columns,  or  all  except 
the  column  for  the  word  count,  which  Mrs.  Cape 
had  offered  to  do.  Of  my  part  I  did  all  I  had 
data  for  on  April  2  and  3,  1911.  It  included 
3316  folios.  On  the  I5th  Mrs.  Cape  brought 
the  last  of  her  work  and  we  compared  it  with 
the  originals  as  before.  After  her  return  I  ar- 
ranged the  last  part  in  the  same  way  as  I  had 
done  the  rest,  and  dated  all  the  articles  to  the 
end.  Then  I  finished  putting  on  the  page 
numbers,  which  was  completed  on  the  iQth.  This 
showed,  for  the  first  time,  exactly  how  many 
folios  there  were.  At  that  date  the  last  number 
was  3925.  This  did  not  include  any  of  the  pre- 
liminary pages,  which  would  bring  it  up  near  the 
4000  mark,  and  as  other  articles  of  mine  are  ap- 
pearing, it  bids  fair  considerably  to  exceed  that 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PRESENT  WORK       xliii 

figure.  I  then  proceeded  to  enter  everything 
in  the  new  register,  and  finished  that  the  same 
day.  The  last  current  number  at  that  date  was 
557,  which  correctly  represented  the  state  of  my 
bibliography. 

I  was  then  ready  to  resume  work  on  the  index 
and  I  pushed  that  forward  all  the  spring.  On 
May  nth  I  sent  the  first  thousand  folios  to  Mrs. 
Cape,  accompanied  by  the  register  book,  to  begin 
the  count  of  words.  She  was  then  living  in  her 
country  home,  "Willowmere, "  on  the  Sound  at 
Stamford,  Conn.  I  had  been  invited  to  deliver  a 
course  of  lectures  during  the  Summer  Session  of 
Columbia  University,  and  she  desired  to  hear 
them.  It  was  therefore  arranged  that  I  be  her 
guest  at  Willowmere  for  the  six  weeks  and  ac- 
company her  in  and  out  of  the  city  each  day. 
There  would  be  considerable  time  for  work,  and 
it  was  decided  that  all  the  manuscript  be  taken 
there.  A  suitable  room  was  provided  for  me  to 
spread  out  my  boxes  and  index  cards,  which  had 
become  cumbrous  and  required  much  space,  and 
where  I  could  continue  my  work  of  indexing 
while  she  did  her  counting. 

As  I  had  to  go  to  Washington  and  spend  a  week 
with  my  family  before  the  lectures  began  on  July 
6th,  I  was  obliged  to  remove  the  bulky  materials 
to  Stamford  some  time  in  advance.  This  was,  in 
fact,  done  on  June  7th,  and  I  remained  there  till 
the  1 2th,  and  got  my  work  well  started.  It  was 
resumed  in  earnest  on  July  3d,  and  continued 
actively  until  Aug.  nth,  when  I  was  obliged  to 


xliv  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

stop  and  prepare  for  my  trip  to  Europe,  which 
took  two  months.  At  that  date  I  had  indexed 
3137  folios.  Mrs.  Cape  had  nearly  finished  count- 
ing the  words,  and  completed  her  work  during 
my  absence.  When  through,  she  shipped  the 
manuscript  and  the  boxes  of  index  cards  to  Provi- 
dence, and  I  found  them  here  on  my  return,  Oct. 
1 7th.  The  register,  showing  exactly  how  many 
words  every  article  contained,  was  with  them,  and 
Mrs.  Cape  had  footed  up  the  columns.  The 
grand  total  was  1,195,839  words!  The  articles 
published  since  that  date  already  raise  it  to  the 
twelve  hundred  thousand  mark,  and  that  has 
been  the  basis  of  all  our  calculations.  We  had 
preferred  to  have  the  work  appear  in  small  con- 
venient volumes  of  about  75,000  words,  or  300 
pages,  each,  and  on  Oct.  27th,  when  Mrs.  Cape 
visited  Providence,  we  figured  first  on  this  basis. 
But  it  was  at  length  decided  that  the  sixteen 
volumes,  which  it  would  thus  require,  would 
constitute  a  serious  objection  to  publication. 
We  finally  compromised  on  twelve  volumes  of 
100,000  words  each,  and  after  she  returned  I  pro- 
ceeded to  divide  the  manuscript  on  this  basis. 
It  was  impossible  to  make  the  volumes  exactly 
equal,  because  certain  conditions  would  outweigh 
that  of  mere  size.  For  example,  each  volume 
must  of  course  begin  with  some  article,  and  there 
were  certain  very  extended  ones  that  would  persist 
in  falling  at  points  where  they  would  swell  the 
volume  unduly.  I  worked  it  down  with  the 
greatest  care,  and  arrived  at  the  best  subdivision 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PRESENT  WORK         xlv 

that  is  practicable  under  the  circumstances.  The 
sketch  of  Dynamic  Sociology  falls  in  the  third 
volume;  most  of  the  volumes  begin  with  a  rather 
prominent  article,  and  Sociology  at  the  Paris  Ex- 
position of  ipoo,  the  most  extended  of  all  my 
lesser  writings,  containing  118,390  words,  forms 
a  volume  (X)  by  itself.  Considerable  part  of  that 
can  be  printed  in  finer  type  than  the  general  text. 

The  idea  of  publication  had  never  been  the 
dominant  one  in  my  mind  when  contemplating 
this  work,  but  rather  that  of  getting  the  entire 
output  of  my  life-work  into  a  form  where  I  (or  any 
one  else)  could  readily  command  it.  I  had  always 
been  reconciled  to  the  possibility  that  it  might 
never  be  published.  But  I  felt  that  in  this  form, 
with  a  full  index  of  the  manuscript,  it  would  be 
worth  all  the  labor  bestowed  upon  it. 

The  folios  were  written  without  much  margin, 
and  therefore,  in  order  to  make  it  convenient  to 
handle  these  volumes  of  manuscript,  a  special 
form  of  holder  was  required.  No  spring-back 
holder  would  suffice.  It  must  be  possible  to  take 
down  a  volume  and  open  it  out,  so  as  to  look 
through  the  folios  for  any  required  reference.  I 
had  seen  such  a  file  holder  in  New  York,  but  I 
found  one  on  the  same  principle  here  in  Providence. 
It  is  called  the  "What  Cheer"1  File,  E.  L.  Freeman 

xThe  phrase  "what  cheer"  is  very  common  in  Rhode  Island,  as  the 
words  said  to  have  been  used  by  the  Indian  chief  when  he,  from  his 
boat  crossing  the  Seekonk,  hailed  Roger  Williams  and  his  party  on  the 
bank  of  the  river  at  the  State  Rock,  now  at  the  foot  of  Williams 
Street,  Providence.  See  the  inscriptions  on  the  monument  erected  on 
this  spot. 


xlvi  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

Company,  3  Westminster  Street,  where  I  obtained 
them.  They  consist  of  a  pasteboard  box,  one 
side  and  the  front  edge  of  which  have  the  form  of  a 
flap,  so  that  when  laid  on  the  other  side  these  may 
be  opened  and  the  contents  handled  at  will.  I 
purchased  twelve  of  these  files  and  placed  the 
volumes  in  them.  Properly  labeled  on  the  back 
and  stood  on  the  shelf  they  present  a  handsome 
appearance,  and  are  almost  as  easily  handled  as 
bound  volumes. 

The  work  of  completing  the  index  was  simply  a 
matter  of  time,  patience,  and  labor.  Vol.  X  was 
finished  on  Oct.  3Oth,  Vol.  XI  on  Nov.  I4th,  and 
Vol.  XII  on  Nov.  26th.  It  was  begun,  as  stated,  at 
Madison  on  July  18,  1910,  and  had  therefore  been 
the  work  of  one  year,  four  months,  and  eight  days ! 
Many  of  the  cards  were  imperfect.  Although, 
in  mentioning  persons  in  the  text,  initials  and  front 
names  are  often  omitted  for  various  reasons,  and 
properly  so,  I  have,  in  the  indexes  of  all  my  books, 
endeavored  to  supply  these,  so  that  the  indexes 
of  my  books  contain  information  not  furnished  by 
the  text.  This  I  have  also  done  for  the  present 
work,  but  there  were  many  other  kinds  of  imper- 
fections, and  from  the  last-named  date  to  Jan.  25, 
1912, 1  was  chiefly  engaged  in  perfecting  the  index. 
I  first  went  through  and  took  out  all  the  imperfect 
cards,  amounting  to  several  hundred.  Then  I 
investigated  all  cases  that  could  be  found  in  my 
study,  and  which  I  had  neglected  to  complete 
while  making  the  index,  on  account  of  the  great 
inconvenience  it  would  have  been  to  get  up  each 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PRESENT  WORK      xlvii 

time,  my  lap-board  covered  with  boxes,  and  hunt 
up  each  case  as  it  arose.  This  settled  nearly  half 
of  the  cases,  and  was  completed  on  Dec.  8th.  A 
large  number  of  others  were  found  in  the  John  Hay 
Library  in  the  week  that  followed,  and  I  was  in 
New  York  on  the  iyth  and  i8th,  and  searched  for 
them  in  the  great  library  there.  Soon  after  this 
I  spent  ten  days  in  Washington  and  paid  four 
visits  to  the  Library  of  Congress,  which  left  only 
a  few  still  to  be  looked  up.  Some  were  found  at 
the  U.  S.  National  Museum,  Department  of  Agri- 
culture, and  Bureau  of  Education.  I  considered 
the  index  done  at  the  end  of  the  year  1911,  but 
when  in  Boston  on  Jan.  8,  1912,  I  went  to  the 
Public  Library  there  and  settled  several  knotty 
points.  I  have  since  found  still  other  cases  in 
my  own  study,  but  a  few  will  always  remain 
unsettled. 

The  matter  of  paging  reprints  had  not  been 
carefully  attended  to,  and  on  Jan.  4,  1912,  I  com- 
menced going  systematically  through  the  entire 
manuscript  with  this  end  in  view.  The  order 
adopted  has  all  along  been:  First  the  title,  second 
the  sketch,  or  "history, "  as  it  is  always  called,  and 
third,  the  reference  to  the  place  of  publication. 
This  means  in  all  cases  the  original  or  principal 
source.  If  there  has  been  a  reprint,  and  this  has 
been  separately  paged,  the  rule  is  to  write  the 
reprint  page  numbers  in  brackets  [  ].  If  the  pages 
are  uniform,  all  page  numbers  stand  over  the  top, 
but  if  the  reprint  pages  begin  and  end  at  differ- 
ent places  from  the  original,  the  numbers  of  the 


xlviii  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

former  are  placed  in  the  margin  opposite  the  line 
on  which  the  pages  begin.  If  this  is  at  some  point 
in  that  line,  this  point  is  indicated  by  a  vertical 
mark  at  that  point,  which  may  fall  between  two 
words  or  between  two  syllables  of  a  word.  If  an 
article  is  reprinted  practically  entire  in  another 
journal,  the  page  numbers  of  the  latter  are  treated 
the  same  as  those  of  other  reprints.  In  some  peri- 
odicals there  are  two  sets  of  page  numbers,  usually 
one  for  the  volume,  and  another  for  the  particular 
number  in  which  the  article  occurs.  In  such 
cases  the  numbers  are  treated  as  reprints.  There 
are  many  irregular  cases,  but  always  it  is  the  origi- 
nal or  chief  publication  that  is  recognized  as  the 
true  one,  and  all  others  are  treated  as  reprints. 
This  sometimes  happens  when  the  secondary 
publication  appeared  earlier  than  the  primary  one, 
and  in  such  cases  the  date  placed  over  the  article 
is  that  of  the  primary  one.  These  rules  were 
followed  throughout  the  entire  manuscript. 

I  always  revised  the  sketches  after  writing  them, 
but  now  I  felt  that  it  would  be  well  to  give  them 
all  a  second  revision  some  time  after  they  were 
written,  and  it  seemed  a  good  time  to  do  this  in 
connection  with  this  critical  work  on  the  paging. 
This  I  did,  beginning  at  the  date  last  mentioned 
(Jan.  4,  1912),  and  I  carried  both  kinds  of  work 
along  together,  thus  putting  the  entire  manuscript 
into  a  complete  and  final  condition  ready  for  the 
press.  This  revision  of  the  sketches  occupied 
more  time  than  the  work  on  the  paging,  but  on 
Jan.  2Oth,  I  had  completed  both. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PRESENT  WORK        xlix 

By  this  time,  after  corresponding  with  Mrs.  Cape 
on  the  subject,  it  had  been  decided  to  write  the 
present  sketch  of  the  preparation  of  the  entire 
work,  and  I  commenced  getting  the  data  for  it 
together  on  the  2ist,  and  the  writing  of  it  occupied 
me  from  the  226.  to  the  25th. 

It  was  then  that  I  decided  to  prefix  to  each 
title  its  new  and  final  "current  number"  (see 
supra,  p.  xli,),  so  that  by  no  possibility  could 
any  article  be  misplaced.  These  were  already 
recorded  in  the  first  column  of  the  register  (see 
supra,  p.  xli),  and  I  had  only  to  follow  that 
strictly.  As  that  also  showed  the  exact  folio  of 
the  manuscript  on  which  each  article  begins,  there 
was  no  danger  of  going  wrong.  To  distinguish 
these  current  numbers  from  all  others  (page 
numbers,  old  bibliography  numbers,  etc.)  still 
standing  on  the  manuscript,  often  only  temporarily 
as  guides,  and  which  are  usually  written  in  pencil 
or  else  typewritten,  I  used  red  ink,  and  always 
placed  them  immediately  before  the  first  word  of 
the  title.  This  work  was  done  on  Jan.  26  and  27, 
1912. 

My  next  task  was  to  prepare  the  table  of  con- 
tents, and  upon  mature  reflection  I  concluded  to  in- 
troduce a  simple  list  of  all  the  articles  and  works  in 
their  chronological  order  as  they  stand  in  the  work. 
I  also  thought  best  to  let  the  current  number  stand 
before  each  item,  followed  by  the  title,  and  this  by 
the  volume  and  page,  but  of  course  for  the  manu- 
script I  could  use  only  the  folio  pages  written  in 
pencil,  to  be  superseded  by  the  final  pages  when 


1  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

they  appear.  This  work  was  begun  on  Jan.  28th 
and  finished  on  Feb.  4th.  It  is  obvious  that  this 
table  of  contents  must  ultimately  be  divided  into 
twelve  parts  for  the  twelve  volumes. 

The  idea  of  attempting  some  classification  of  the 
work  by  subjects  has  already  been  broached  (see 
supra,  pp.  xi,  xii,  xiii),  and  I  had  fully  made  up  my 
mind  to  introduce  a  classified  table  of  contents, 
but  I  did  not  see  the  necessity  of  repeating  the 
titles.  Indeed,  it  would  involve  much  repetition, 
as  many  articles  must  be  classed  under  several 
heads.  The  numerical  system  adopted  made  it 
possible  to  classify  them  by  numbers,  under  which 
the  titles  are  easily  found  in  the  detailed  list.  I 
commenced  this  work  on  the  date  last  mentioned 
(Feb.  4,  1912).  I  found  it  a  very  delicate  matter 
requiring  much  thought  and  systematic  attention. 
It  was  necessary  first  to  decide  on  the  names  of  the 
subjects,  and  then  carefully  and  thoughtfully  to 
consider  every  title  in  the  entire  work,  and  assign 
it  to  its  proper  subject  or  science.  I  therefore 
took  index  cards  and  used  a  card  for  each  subject, 
putting  down  the  numbers  in  their  order  on  the 
cards.  The  work  had  to  be  gone  over  several 
times  and  carefully  verified  and  revised.  The 
cards  were  done  on  the  7th,  and  I  then  wrote  the 
introduction  to  the  "Numerically  Classified  Con- 
tents." The  incorporation  of  the  matter  of  the 
cards  into  the  manuscript  was  a  mechanical 
operation,  and  was  finished  on  the  8th.  This 
table  will  precede  the  index  at  the  end  of  the  work. 

In  indexing  the  manuscript  of  the  entire  work 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PRESENT  WORK  li 

I  had  not  included  the  preliminary  matter.  In 
fact  all  except  the  preface  had  been  written  since 
the  index  was  completed.  But  there  was  no  good 
reason  why  this  part  should  not  also  be  indexed, 
and  on  the  last-mentioned  date  I  began  this  work. 
The  laborious  part  was,  of  course,  the  Contents, 
as  all  the  titles,  which  had  been  indexed  in  the  body 
of  the  work,  had  to  be  entered  again  here,  and  the 
Roman  page  numerals  must  be  made  to  precede 
the  Arabic  ones  on  the  cards.  The  indexing  was 
carried  to  the  end  of  the  Contents  on  Feb.  roth, 
and  was  completed  on  the  nth. 

In  two  of  my  books  I  had  introduced  the  feature 
which  I  call  "embellishment."  These  are  The 
Psychic  Factors  of  Civilization  (see  No.  349,  sketch) , 
and  Applied  Sociology  (see  No.  532,  sketch). 
Although  difficult  of  accomplishment  and  little 
appreciated  by  readers,  I  lay  great  store  by  this 
feature,  as  I  greatly  admire  it  when  I  see  it  in  the 
works  of  others.  These  glimpses  of  truth  dropped 
along  the  wayside  of  time  impress  me  as  nothing 
else  can  with  the  continuity  of  human  thought 
and  the  universal  striving  of  mind  after  unity. 

I  did  not  at  first  propose  to  make  this  feature 
very  prominent  in  the  present  work,  but  I  thought 
that  at  least  one  motto  might  be  found  for  each 
of  the  twelve  volumes,  that  should  reflect  some  of 
the  ideas  most  prominent  in  that  volume.  Each 
volume  represents  a  certain  period,  longer  or 
shorter,  of  my  life,  and  falls  between  some  two  of 
the  years  of  it,  as  indicated  by  the  age-record 
over  each  article.  During  each  of  these  periods 


Hi  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

my  mind  was  engrossed  in  one  or  more  of  the  lead- 
ing ideas  brought  out  by  the  articles.  I  thought 
perhaps  there  might  be  difference  enough  between 
these  periods  and  the  predominant  ideas  to  enable 
one  to  find  an  expression  for  each  of  them.  What- 
ever success  has  been  met  with  in  this  quest  is 
shown  by  the  mottos  and  quotations  selected. 
In  this  work,  as  in  almost  everything  else  connected 
with  the  great  task,  I  have  had  the  intelligent  as- 
sistance of  Mrs.  Cape,  an  accomplished  student  of 
Browning,  Emerson,  and  other  philosopher  poets, 
as  well  as  of  Vedantic  literature.  To  her  I  am 
indebted  for  the  selection  of  several  of  the  most 
appropriate  literary  ornaments  of  this  class. 

This  work  was  commenced  on  Feb.  1 1,  1912,  and 
I  soon  got  together  a  considerable  number  of  appro- 
priate mottos.  Mrs.  Cape  came  to  Providence  on 
the  1 8th,  and  we  went  carefully  through  the  ma- 
terials. She  copied  most  of  my  notes  as  guides 
in  her  own  researches,  and  took  them  with  her  when 
she  returned.  I  continued  my  own,  visiting 
various  libraries,  and  adding  much  to  what  I  had 
found.  I  embodied  the  results  in  a  rough  draft, 
copying  the  quotations  on  temporary  title-pages 
in  pencil.  On  the  26th  I  sent  all  my  matter  on 
the  subject  to  Mrs.  Cape,  asking  her  to  revise  it 
and  add  what  she  could.  She  did  so,  doing  much 
work  in  the  great  New  York  Library,  and  on  March 
6th  she  returned  my  notes  with  all  her  additions. 

In  view  of  the  interest  and  value  of  these  apho- 
risms, and  the  quantity  of  material  in  hand,  I 
decided  to  change  the  original  plan  and  introduce 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PRESENT  WORK         liii 

many  more  quotations  than  I  had  expected  to  do, 
including  some  of  considerable  length.  It  was 
proposed  to  place  at  the  head  of  the  volumes,  on 
fly-leaves  following  the  title-pages,  general  ex- 
pressions for  the  leading  ideas  brought  out  in  the 
works  treated  in  each  volume,  and  to  let  the 
aphorisms  that  in  any  way  related  to  these  ideas 
follow  such  expressions.  The  reader  will  some- 
times be  troubled  to  see  the  connection,  and  it 
needs  to  be  explained  that  many  of  my  ideas  are 
wholly  new,  and  therefore  it  cannot  be  expected 
that  any  direct  expression  of  them  can  be  found. 
I  have  always  been  aware  of  this,  but  I  have 
searched  faithfully  for,  and  carefully  recorded  all 
the  approaches  to  them  that  I  could  find.  What 
I  have  generally  found  has  been  what  may  be 
properly  called  adumbrations  of  my  ideas,  and  it  is 
these,  rather  than  true  expressions  of  them,  that 
the  aphorisms  furnish. 

On  March  yth  I  commenced  embodying  the 
results  of  Mrs.  Cape's  investigations  and  my  own 
into  the  manuscript  proper,  making  title-pages 
for  the  volumes,  on  which  some  of  the  shorter  and 
more  epigrammatic  phrases  are  usually  placed, 
and  letting  these  be  followed  by  fly-leaves  con- 
taining the  main  thoughts  with  the  appropriate 
quotations.  This  work  was  not  finished  until 
March  nth. 

As  a  part  of  the  general  plan  of  embellishment,  I 
decided  to  introduce  portraits  at  as  many  different 
ages  as  there  existed  materials  for,  and  I  made  a 
thorough  search  for  such  materials.  This  work 


liv  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

was  all  done  in  the  early  part  of  March,  1912.  For 
the  frontispiece  to  the  entire  work  I  use  the  picture 
I  had  of  the  house  in  which  I  was  born,  in  front  of 
which  I  am  standing.  This  picture  was  taken  by 
a  local  photographer  on  Sept.  n,  1893.  It  is  the 
double  house,  Nos.  512  and  514  Joliet  Street, 
standing  on  the  southeast  corner  of  Joliet  and 
Benton  Streets,  Joliet,  Illinois.  The  room  in 
which  I  was  born  near  midnight  of  June  18,  1841, 
is  on  the  first  floor  in  the  northwest  corner  of  house 
No.  514.  The  house  was  built  as  a  single  house 
by  my  father  and  my  next  oldest  brother,  Justin 
Loomis  Ward.  The  latter  accompanied  me  to  the 
place  and  showed  me  the  house  some  weeks  before 
(see  infra,  p.  Ixix),  but  I  was  on  my  way  to  the 
Black  Hills,  and  could  not  have  the  photograph 
taken  till  my  return.  I  hold  in  my  hand  a  roll  of 
maps  that  I  had  been  using. 

The  next  work  done  was  to  prepare  the  "Numeri- 
cal Bibliography. "  To  that  I  have  prefixed  a  full 
description  of  the  method  and  process  adopted, 
so  that  all  that  needs  to  be  said  of  a  historical 
character  is  to  give  the  dates  on  which  it  was 
executed.  It  was  a  comparatively  short  piece  of 
work.  I  compiled  all  the  data  on  the  cards  on 
Feb.  14  and  15,  1912,  and  transcribed  the  whole 
in  manuscript  form  on  the  i6th  and  I7th.  It  was 
a  long  task  to  index  it,  as  I  had  mostly  neglected 
to  index  the  references,  and  comparisons  had  to 
be  made  with  the  manuscript  in  most  cases.  It 
was  begun  on  March  3d  and  finished  on  the  9th. 
This  bibliography  like  the  "Numerically  Classified 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PRESENT  WORK          Iv 

Contents, "  and  for  similar  reasons,  is  placed  at  the 
end  of  the  work. 

The  last  work  done  was  to  write  the  "Personal 
Remark,"  which  immediately  follows  this  sketch. 
It  was  not  exactly  an  afterthought,  as  I  had 
thought  much  about  it,  but  there  had  been  serious 
doubts  as  to  what  it  was  best  to  include  in  it,  and 
the  question  as  to  its  proper  place  had  also  given 
some  trouble,  so  that  it  was  not  fully  decided 
whether  to  write  it  or  not  till  long  after  everything 
else  had  been  written.  A  short  paper  with  that 
title  was  written  in  March,  1912,  but  upon  re- 
flection it  was  considered  unsatisfactory,  and  re- 
jected. For  a  long  time  it  was  thought  best  not  to 
introduce  this  feature,  but  many  weighty  reasons 
urged  me  not  only  to  introduce  it,  but  to  expand  it 
much  beyond  the  limits  originally  contemplated. 

There  were  four  subjects  of  a  personal  character 
that  seemed  to  demand  treatment  in  order  to 
satisfy  a  desire  that  I  knew  to  exist  on  the  part  of 
those  who  would  read  this  work.  These  were, 
ist,  a  brief  account  of  the  principal  honors,  or 
marks  of  approval  and  recognition,  that  I  have  re- 
ceived ;  2d,  a  statement  of  my  genealogy,  as  far  as 
it  has  been  traced ;  3d,  a  brief  sketch  of  my  early 
life,  anterior  to  the  appearance  of  any  of  my  more 
important  contributions,  and  therefore  not  covered 
by  the  histories  of  such  contributions;  and  4th 
and  most  important  of  all,  a  summary  of  the  lead- 
ing doctrines,  or  philosophical  principles,  that  I 
have  either  originated  or  so  emphasized  as  to 
render  them  in  a  proper  sense  my  own. 


Ivi  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

I  commenced  this  work  on  July  4,  1912,  and 
finished  it  on  the  3Oth  of  that  month,  but  I  re- 
cast it  a  number  of  times  during  this  period  before 
it  was  in  an  entirely  satisfactory  form.  Its  proper 
place  seems  to  be  here  at  the  end  of  the  present 
sketch. 


Personal  Remark 

THERE  are  two  reasons  for  making  this  personal 
remark.  One  is  my  desire  to  gratify  those  who, 
after  reading  my  books,  naturally  wish  to  know 
something  of  the  author;  and  the  other  is  to  say 
certain  things  that  cannot  be  said  elsewhere.  As 
to  the  first  of  these  purposes,  I  am  sure  I  shall 
disappoint  many,  because  I  cannot  introduce  here 
an  autobiographical  sketch,  except  of  the  briefest 
character.  I  have  never  felt  that  my  biography, 
aside  from  my  writings,  was  worth  publishing. 
To  me,  of  course,  the  events  of  my  life  are  of  very 
vital  interest,  but  that  is  true  of  the  life  of  every- 
body. In  my  own  case,  I  certainly  could  not  hope 
that  the  public  would  share  that  interest. 

There  exist  already  a  considerable  number  of 
brief  sketches  of  my  life,  most  of  which  are  sub- 
stantially correct.  The  publishers  of  biographical 
dictionaries  have  importuned  me  for  years  to 
furnish  such  sketches,  but  I  have  made  it  a  rule 
to  pay  no  attention  to  them,  and  compel  them  to 
seek  the  information  for  themselves.  They  are 
all  glad  to  have  the  subjects  of  the  sketches  write 
them  for  them,  and  thus  save  them  the  trouble  and 
expense  of  doing  so.  But  this  method  renders 

Ivii 


Iviii  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

their  works  worse  than  useless.  It  robs  them  of 
all  perspective,  and  even  of  reliability.  The 
sketches  are  measured  by  the  vanity  of  the  writ- 
ers, which  is  inversely  proportional  to  their  true 
merits.  Such  works  are  among  the  many  effective 
means  of  bringing  mediocre  people  into  undue 
prominence  and  enabling  charlatans  to  attain 
success. 

There  was,  however,  one  somewhat  notable 
exception  to  this.  The  sketch  that  was  submitted 
to  me  for  my  criticism,  besides  being  much  fuller 
than  others,  was  already  written  and  showed  that 
the  enterprise  had  really  investigated  my  history 
and  learned  most  of  the  facts  worth  stating.  There 
was  very  little  to  change,  and  I  approved  it  and 
authorized  its  publication.  This  sketch  occurs  in 
"The  Cyclopedia  of  American  Biographies,"  pub- 
lished by  the  Federal  Book  Company  of  Boston, 
Vol.  VII,  p.  490.  Boston,  1903.  It  contains  a 
few  typographical  errors,  but  is  a  fair  account  of 
my  life  and  work  down  to  that  date  (1903). 

Another  important  sketch  authorized  by  me 
was  the  one  written  by  Mr.  Wade  Mountfortt  and 
published  in  The  Multitude  for  July,  1902,  but  of 
that  I  give  a  full  account  in  the  history  of  Dy- 
namic Sociology  (No.  145,  near  the  end),  and  in  fact 
reproduce  the  sketch  entire  with  the  portrait. 

The  only  other  sketch  worthy  of  mention  was 
that  written  by  Mr.  H.  L.  Koopman,  Librarian  of 
Brown  University,  on  the  occasion  of  my  call  there 
in  the  spring  of  1906.  It  appeared  as  the  leading 
article  of  the  Brown  Alumni  Monthly  for  April, 


PERSONAL  REMARK  lix 

1906  (Vol.  VI,  No.  9,  pp.  181-183).  The  portrait 
that  accompanies  it  is  from  an  electrotype  which 
I  furnished,  made  from  a  photograph  taken  in  1903. 
This  sketch  briefly  refers  to  the  three  most  im- 
portant events  of  my  life  subsequent  to  the  ones 
last  mentioned,  viz.,  first,  my  call  to  Brown 
University,  second,  the  appearance  of  Applied 
Sociology,  and  third,  my  presidency  of  the  newly 
organized  American  Sociological  Society. 

The  last  of  these  events,  or  facts,  in  my  history 
might  be  included  among  the  honors  I  have 
received,  none  of  them  very  great,  but  all  of  them 
unsought  and  unexpected,  and  most  of  them  true 
surprises.  Among  other  such  surprises  of  a  major 
importance,  I  may  mention  my  invitation  to 
attend  the  Herbert  Spencer  Dinner  (see  No.  137), 
1882;  the  conferring  upon  me  of  the  degree  of; 
Doctor  of  Laws  on  June  7,  1897;  and  my  election 
to  the  presidency  of  the  Institut  International  de 
Sociologie  on  Sept.  27,  1900,  for  the  year  1903, 
when  I  actually  did  preside  over  the  Fifth  Congress, 
held  in  the  Sorbonne  in  Paris  (see  Nos.  476  [end 
of  sketch],  502,  505). 

I  propose  now,  however,  to  speak  of  a  few  other 
surprises  of  minor  rank,  but  which  have  been 
even  more  gratifying  to  me  than  the  larger  ones, 
because  they  have  emanated  from  humble  sources, 
and  indicate  a  true  and  genuine  appreciation  on 
the  part  of  those  concerned  in  them.  They  have 
proceeded  either  from  my  students,  who  have 
heard  my  lectures,  or  from  readers  of  my  writings, 
who  have  been  specially  interested  in  my  views 


k  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

of  life.  Relative  to  the  former  class  I  may  men- 
tion the  fact  that  on  each  of  the  three  occasions 
when  I  delivered  my  two  courses  of  lectures,  one 
on  Pure,  the  other  on  Applied  Sociology,  I  received 
such  an  attention  from  the  students.  At  the 
University  of  Chicago  in  1 897, 1  was  presented  with 
a  gold-headed  cane.  At  the  University  of  West 
Virginia  in  1898,  a  beautiful  testimonial  was  read 
and  handed  to  me,  signed  by  about  all  the  students 
in  my  classes.  At  Stanford  University  in  1899, 
I  was  the  recipient  from  the  students  of  a  handsome 
valise,  appropriate  to  the  traveler  that  I  was  in 
that  land. 

These  were  special  lectures  addressed  to  such 
mature-minded  students  as  come  to  universities 
for  the  summer  courses,  and  I  did  not  consider 
that  I  was  doing  anything  but  unfold  my  system 
to  persons  on  my  own  plane  of  thinking.  I  did  not 
call  it  teaching.  I  was  called  to  Brown  University 
*  in  the  spring  of  1906,  and  the  chair  of  Professor  of 
Sociology  was  created  at  that  time,  which  I  have 
held  ever  since.  I  began  my  professorial  work, 
the  first  I  had  ever  done,  with  many  misgivings 
as  to  my  competency  to  teach  without  previous 
experience.  It  had  been  stipulated,  as  a  con- 
dition to  my  coming,  that  I  should  have  advanced 
classes  only.  I  set  in  in  the  fall  of  1 906,  and  carried 
the  four  courses  through  the  year.  I  seemed  to 
give  entire  satisfaction,  and  I  certainly  did  so  to 
the  students,  many  of  whom  were  graduates  and 
teachers  themselves.  As  a  proof  of  this,  and  a 
complete  surprise  to  me,  at  the  close  of  the  last 


PERSONAL  REMARK  Ixi 

examination,  I  was  presented  in  a  neat  speech  by 
one  of  the  brightest  of  my  students,  but  on  behalf 
of  them  all,  who  had  kept  it  perfectly  quiet,  with 
a  handsome  "loving  cup. "  The  affair  was  written 
up  by  another  student,  who  was  connected  with 
the  press,  and  the  account  was  printed  in  The 
Evening  Tribune  of  Providence  for  June  12,  1907. 
Somehow  they  got  hold  of  the  picture  used  by 
Mr.  Koopman  (see  supra,  p.  lix),  and  it  appears 
in  the  same  column. 

That  picture  was  destined  to  do  duty  in  quite 
another  way  soon  after,  though  it  cannot  exactly 
be  called  publication.  Mr.  Philip  M.  Minassian, 
of  Philadelphia,  has  long  been  doing  a  noble  work 
in  lecturing  to  working  men  on  sociology.  He  is 
teaching  them  science  and  real  history,  from  such 
authors  as  Lewis  H.  Morgan  and  Edward  B. 
Tylor.  He  was  also  using  my  works  regularly  as 
the  groundwork  of  his  sociology,  and  he  had  written 
to  me  on  the  subject.  He  had  heard  of  the  chart 
I  am  using,  which  contains  a  "survey  of  all  know- 
ledge in  the  order  of  nature"  (see  No.  373,  at  end 
of  sketch).  I  had  sent  him  a  copy  of  it,  which  he 
had  had  enlarged  to  hang  in  his  lecture  room.  He 
asked  me  for  a  picture  of  myself,  saying  he  wished 
to  enlarge  it  and  hang  it  by  the  side  of  that  of 
Karl  Marx !  I  had  nothing  at  the  time  but  some 
prints  which  I  had  made  in  1903,  and  I  sent  him 
one  of  them,  well  knowing  that  they  could  not 
be  reproduced.  But  I  was  ready  to  send  him  the 
electrotype.  He  never  asked  me  for  it,  and  I 
heard  nothing  from  it  for  a  good  while.  At  last 


Ixii  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

I  received  a  large  box  containing  the  picture 
enlarged  to  13  X  16  inches  for  the  picture  alone,  in 
a  handsome  gilt  frame  22  X  26  inches.  It  was  a 
New  Year's  gift  for  1910.  He  subsequently  ex- 
plained that  his  brother  was  a  photographer  and 
had  done  it  for  him  from  the  print  I  furnished. 
When  Professors  Wilson  and  Dealey  of  the  De- 
partment of  Social  and  Political  Science,  under 
which  sociology  falls,  saw  the  picture,  they  insisted 
that  I  should  allow  it  to  be  hung  in  the  main  hall 
of  that  department.  I  consented  on  condition 
that  theirs  should  hang  with  it,  and  there  it  hangs, 
though  thus  far  it  is  only  in  the  company  of  Dar- 
win, Francis  A.  Walker,  and  Wilhelm  Wundt. 
Mr.  Minassian  said  he  had  a  duplicate  of  it  hanging 
in  his  lecture  hall. 

A  similar  honor  has  been  done  me  by  Columbia 
University.  While  I  was  giving  the  course  of 
lectures  there  of  the  Summer  Session  in  July,  1911, 
Professor  Giddings  told  me  that  Columbia  would 
be  glad  of  a  portrait  of  me  to  hang  in  the  Sociology 
Room  of  Kent  Hall,  where  there  are  many  others 
whom  we  now  call  sociologists,  among  them,  as  I 
remember,  Herbert  Spencer  and  John  Stuart 
Mill.  I  told  him  he  could  have  the  large  one  I 
received  from  Mr.  Minassian.  It  happened  that 
Mrs.  Cape  was  present  when  this  conversation 
took  place,  and  later  she  told  Professor  Giddings 
that  she  would  like  to  supply  that  portrait  herself, 
to  which,  of  course,  Professor  Giddings  consented. 

When  I  was  in  Oxford  in  1909  at  the  dedication 
of  the  Central  Labour  College,  Mr.  Dennis  Hird 


PERSONAL  REMARK  Ixiii 

took  me  to  a  photographer  and  we  both  sat  for 
our  pictures.  A  number  of  views  were  taken, 
some  in  which  he  and  I  appeared  together,  and 
others  in  which  we  appeared  alone.  One  of  the 
former  forms  the  frontispiece  to  my  address  de- 
livered on  that  occasion,  printed  in  the  "Plebs" 
Magazine  for  November  and  December,  1909,  and 
subsequently  issued  as  a  reprint  with  the  title: 
Education  and  Progress  (see  No.  551).  The  single 
photographs  of  both  Mr.  Hird  and  myself  were 
highly  artistic  and  extra  large.  I  obtained  several, 
and  sent  one  of  myself  to  Mrs.  Cape.  Without  my 
knowledge,  she  sent  to  Oxford  for  a  duplicate, 
which  she  took  to  an  artist  photographer  in  New 
York,  and  had  it  enlarged  in  sepia.  This  she 
presented  to  Columbia  University.  Most  of  the 
portraits  in  the  Sociological  Room  in  Kent  Hall 
are  signed  by  the  subjects  of  them  in  their  own 
handwriting,  and  I  have  also  appended  my  sig- 
nature to  mine. 

I  received  a  special  invitation,  emanating,  of 
course,  from  Professor  Haeckel,  to  attend  the  great 
Congress  of  Monists  in  Hamburg  in  September, 
1911,  which  I  accepted  and  was  present  (see  No. 
558).  Owing  to  his  fractured  limb  from  a  fall  in 
April,  Professor  Haeckel  was  unable  to  be  present, 
but  at  the  close  of  the  meeting  a  large  delegation, 
which  I  gladly  joined,  visited  Jena  and  did  him  all 
the  honor  in  their  power.  The  great  torchlight 
procession  that  marched  past  his  villa  on  Sept.  I2th, 
and  listened  to  a  few  words  from  him  standing  on 
the  balcony,  will  not  soon  be  forgotten  by  those 


Ixiv  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

who  participated  in  it,  but  on  the  next  morning  a 
comparatively  small  delegation  waited  on  him 
privately  to  pay  their  respects.  I  was  invited 
to  be  one  of  that  company,  and  in  fact,  apparently 
for  no  good  reason,  was  made  the  first  to  speak  to 
him,  although  I  had  no  set  address;  but  the  few 
words  that  passed  between  us  were  agreeable  in 
the  extreme  (see  No.  560).  A  photographer  was 
brought  in  at  a  certain  stage  of  the  interview,  and 
the  delegation  was  photographed  as  a  group. 
I  did  not  obtain  one  of  the  views,  but  some  of  the 
American  delegates  did  so,  and  brought  it  back 
with  them.  It  was  reproduced  in  the  Truth  Seeker 
of  New  York  for  November  18,  1911,  page  729, 
where  I  first  saw  it.  The  faces  are  mostly  clear. 
I  sat  well  in  the  foreground  at  one  side.  Professor 
Haeckel  himself  was  unfortunately  too  far  in  the 
rear.  In  the  sketch  of  my  Sunrise  Club  after- 
dinner  speech  of  Jan.  29,  1912,  in  which  I  described 
this  visit  to  Haeckel,  and  which  was  published  in 
the  Truth  Seeker  (see  No.  560),  I  tell  how  my  pic- 
ture was  isolated  from  that  group,  enlarged,  and 
reproduced. 

The  students  of  Brown  University,  and  especially 
the  twenty  Greek  letter  fraternities  represented 
by  them,  have  been  annually  publishing  a  volume 
pertaining  to  their  special  interests.  It  is  called 
the  Liber  Brunensis,  and  each  volume  is  dedicated 
to  some  person  who  is  in  one  way  or  another  a  sort 
of  favorite  of  the  students.  Usually  it  is  one  of 
the  older  members  of  the  Faculty.  Besides  the 
dedication,  the  portrait  of  this  person  forms  the 


PERSONAL  REMARK  bcv 

frontispiece  of  the  volume.  The  class  of  1912 
chose  me  as  the  recipient  of  this  honor.  It  was 
in  vain  that  I  protested,  alleging  that  I  was  a 
comparatively  new-comer  to  Brown;  I  must 
submit.  Mr.  F.  C.  Perry,  who  had  been  in  my 
classes  for  two  years,  was  the  editor,  and  he  in- 
formed me  of  the  decision  of  the  class  of  1912,  and 
asked  me  for  a  photograph  to  be  used  for  the 
frontispiece.  I  was  somewhat  troubled  to  supply 
one.  I  wished  it  to  be  something  new  and  unique. 
I  did  not  want  the  one  that  hangs  in  Maxcy  Hall, 
and  which  had  been  reproduced  so  many  times. 
I  preferred  not  to  use  the  Oxford  one,  which  had 
so  recently  been  hung  in  the  Sociology  Room  of 
Kent  Hall,  at  Columbia.  The  old  one  of  1886, 
though  excellent,  was  out  of  date.  At  last  I 
discovered  that  I  had  one  of  the  views  taken  in 
1903,  at  the  same  time  as  that  which  had  been  so 
often  used,  and  which  had  not  been  preferred  at 
the  time.  But  it  was  an  excellent  picture,  much 
less  in  profile,  and  some  had  even  expressed  a 
preference  for  it.  I  gave  it  to  Mr.  Perry,  and  it 
appears  here  for  the  first  time,  but  beautifully 
toned  and  softened  by  modern  processes.  I  also 
gave  Mr.  Perry  one  of  my  facsimile  cards  that  I 
wrote  many  years  ago,  and  for  which  I  had  a  plate 
made.  It  was  used  to  perfection,  and  my  signa- 
ture, written  indeed  by  me,  but  after  a  hundred 
trials,  stands  in  all  simplicity  under  the  picture. 
This  simple  and  spontaneous  expression  of  affection 
on  the  part  of  my  students  was  in  the  highest  degree 
gratifying  to  me.  The  dedication  is  as  follows : 


kvi  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

To  |  Professor  Lester  Frank  Ward,  LL.D.  |  whose  ability 
and  attainments  rank  him  with  the  |  great  men  of  our  day, 
and  whose  personal  |  interest  in  and  kindness  to  his  |  pupils 
will  ever  keep  him  |  dear  to  their  memory  |  This  54th  volume 
of  the  Liber  Brunensis  is  most  |  affectionately  dedicated. 

The  type  of  the  dedication  is  "black  letter" 
and  "German  text." 


None  of  the  above-mentioned  sketches  go  very 
far  back  in  my  history,  beyond  stating  the  date 
and  place  of  my  birth.  There  may  be  some  who 
would  care  to  know  more  of  my  very  early  life, 
and  even  of  my  genealogy,  so  far  as  it  has  been 
traced.  I  never  took  any  interest  in  genealogy. 
jTMy  mind  has  always  beenHrimmed  toward  the 
*  future  rather  than  the  past.  Firmly  convinced 
for  most  of  my  life  that  the  human  race  has  been 
ascending,  and  not  descending,  I  have  cared  little 
for  my  ancestors,  except  in  a  biological  sense. 
But  I  have  always  had  a  horror  of  degeneracy,  the 
proof  of  which,  in  certain  individuals,  families, 
and  even  communities,  is  manifest.  Pride  of 
ancestry  is  a  mark  of  degeneracy.  One  of  Robert 
G.  Ingersoll's  bright  epigrams  was  that  those  who 
are  most  proud  of  their  ancestors  usually  have 
nothing  but  ancestors  to  be  proud  of.  When  asked 
if  my  lack  of  interest  in  genealogy  was  due  to  the 
fear  that  my  ancestors  might  prove  to  be  low,  I 
always  answered  that  it  was  rather  from  the  fear 
that  they  might  prove  to  be  eminent,  and  I 
degenerated  A  recent  book  giving  the  genealogy 


PERSONAL  REMARK  Ixvii 

of  the  Ward  family r  has  dispelled  both  these 
apprehensions.  My  remote  ancestor,  Andrew 
Ward,  was  neither  obscure,  nor  was  he  very  emi- 
nent. He  played  a  somewhat  important  r61e 
in  the  colonial  history  of  Connecticut.  He  was  a 
prominent  magistrate  and  influential  citizen,  and 
held  a  number  of  public  offices.  In  June,  1907,  a 
monument  was  erected  to  his  memory  in  a  cemetery 
at  Fairfield,  Conn.,  where  he  lived  longest,  and 
where  he  died.  I  have  been  to  see  this  monument. 
This  Andrew  Ward  was  the  son  of  Andrew 
Ward  of  Gorleston,  Suffolk  Co.,  England,  who 
in  turn  was  the  son  of  Sir  Richard  Ward,  of 
Homersfield,  in  the  same  county.  The  record 
therefore  goes  back  two  generations  farther.  My 
own  genealogy  is  directly  traced  all  the  way,  and 
is  as  follows: 

Andrew  Ward  of  Fairfield born     1597 

Andrew  Ward,  Jr 1647 

Peter  Ward "        1676 

Ira  Ward "        1704 

James  Ward  (my  great  grandfather)     "        1729 

James  Ward  (my  grandfather) 1764 

Justus  Ward  (my  father) "        1788 

These  were  all  father  and  son  in  direct  line, 
making  seven  generations  in  about  three  hundred 
years.  The  maternal  ancestors  are  also  given. 
Prof.  Henry  A.  Ward  of  Rochester  was  one  of  the 
descendants  of  Andrew  Ward.  Long  before  this 
book  appeared  he  and  I  had  discussed  our  probable 

1  The  Genealogy  of  the  Descendants  of  Andrew  Ward  of  Fairfield, 
Conn.  By  the  Rev.  George  Kemp  Ward,  New  York,  1910.  Second 
Edition,  1911. 


Ixviii  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

relationship.  Among  several  prominent  persons 
coming  in  on  collateral  lines  may  be  mentioned 
John  Burroughs.  I  had  been  told  when  a  boy  that 
my  father  came  to  Western  New  York  from  New 
Hampshire,  but  I  never  heard  that  his  ancestors 
were  settled  in  Connecticut. 

On  my  mother's  side  I  know  of  no  such  record. 
Her  name  was  Rolph,  and  I  never  heard  of  a 
Rolph  genealogy.  But  her  mother  was  a  Loomis, 
and  belonged  to  the  great  Loomis  family  that  has 
produced  so  many  eminent  men.  The  Loomis 
genealogy  has  long  been  extant.  The  only  one 
whom  we  claimed  as  a  relative  was  Justin  Loomis, 
so  long  president  of  Lewisburg  College,  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  author  of  a  series  of  text-books,  one 
of  which,  his  Physiology,  I  studied.  We  called 
him  uncle.  There  was  a  vague  idea  in  the  family 
that  some  of  my  mother's  distant  relatives  were 
men  of  eminence,  the  one  most  commonly  men- 
tioned being  Edward  Everett.  My  grandfather 
Rolph,  who,  I  believe,  was  a  clergyman,  was  said 
to  have  translated  Homer's  Iliad,  but,  if  so,  it 
was  probably  never  published.  At  least,  I  know 
of  no  translation  by  Rolph. 

My  father  was  a  mechanic,  especially  a  mill- 
wright and  wheelwright,  but  generally  inventive, 
and  a  '  'jack-at-all- trades. "  He  was  also  musi- 
cal and  played  the  fife.  He  was  fife-major  in 
the  army  during  the  War  of  1812,  and  served 
in  the  battle  of  Buffalo,  for  which  service,  before 
the  homestead  days,  he  obtained  a  land  warrant 
for  1 60  acres  of  land  in  Iowa.  The  whole  Ward 


PERSONAL  REMARK  Ixix 

family  early  settled  in  Western  New  York,  and 
there  is  a  nest  of  Wards  there  still.  But  my  father 
moved  to  Illinois  after  the  birth  of  most  of  the 
children.  My  next  older  brother  Erastus,  and  I, 
the  tenth  and  last,  were  the  only  ones  born  in  that 
State.  My  father  sought  a  mill-site  in  Northeastern 
Illinois,  first  on  the  Dupage  River,  and  later  on 
the  Des  Plaines  River.  The  Illinois  and  Michi- 
gan Canal,  now  the  great  Drainage  Canal,  was 
being  cut  through  to  connect  Lake  Michigan  with 
the  Mississippi,  and  he  secured  the  contract  to 
build  many  of  the  locks.  He  settled  in  Joliet, 
where  there  were  fine  beds  of  freestone,  bought  a 
quarry,  and  built  the  locks.  My  next  oldest 
brother,  Loomis,  assisted  him  in  this  work.  It 
was  there  that  I  was  born.  On  Aug.  31,  1893, 
I  visited  Joliet  in  company  with  my  brother 
Loomis  (see  supra,  p.  liv),  and  he  showed  me  the 
house  in  which  I  was  born  (see  frontispiece),  and 
also  the  locks  that  they  built.  He  pointed  out 
the  spot  where  the  stone  was  quarried,  but  the 
State  Penitentiary  now  stands  over  my  father's 
quarry!  For  all  the  time  that  I  lived  in  Illinois 
the  State  Prison  was  at  Alton.  But  it  has  now 
been  so  long  in  Joliet  that  people  sometimes  smile 
when  I  tell  them  I  was  born  there.  As  the  family 
moved  away  from  Joliet  one  year  after  I  was  born, 
I  tell  them  that  I  escaped  at  an  early  age. 

The  Des  Plaines  (or  Aux  Plaines,  as  it  was 
locally  called)  flowed  over  a  long  swamp  or  low, 
wet  region  of  country,  called  the  "Sag,"  for  many 
miles  in  its  course.  This  occurred  mostly  in  what 


Ixx  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

is  now  called  Downer's  Grove,  then  known  as 
Cass.  It  lies  some  distance  above  Lockport  and 
Lament,  and  extended  to  within  fifteen  miles  of 
Chicago.  It  was  impossible  to  build  a  towpath 
along  this  region,  and  my  father  and  older  brothers 
obtained  the  contract  to  build  a  long  towpath- 
bridge,  called  the  "Sag  Bridge,"  raised  on  timbers 
above  the  swamp.  It  had  to  be  ten  miles  long. 
To  do  this  work  it  was  necessary  to  erect  a  saw- 
mill near  the  spot.  A  brisk-flowing  stream  came 
into  the  river  from  the  north  with  sufficient  fall 
to  make  an  overshot  wheel  possible,  which  will 
drive  a  saw  with  the  minimum  of  water.  The 
site  was  located,  the  mill  built,  and  the  work  begun. 
We  moved  to  a  place  on  this  stream  a  mile  above 
the  mill,  and  my  father  bought  a  farm  there  and 
built  a  house.  The  stream  had  never  been  named, 
and  it  was  thenceforth  known  as  Ward's  Creek. 
It  was  at  this  place,  in  this  new-built  house,  on 
this  stream  and  farm,  that  I  first  came  to  con- 
sciousness, and  here  are  stamped  on  my  memory 
all  the  scenes  of  my  earliest  boyhood.  Here  we 
lived  till  I  was  nine  years  old,  here  I  first  went 
to  school  in  the  schoolhouse  a  mile  north  of  the 
Cass  farm.  My  recollection  of  every  detail,  and 
of  the  precise  topography  of  the  whole  region  over 
which  I  so  freely  roamed,  is  exceedingly  vivid. 
From  the  date  of  our  next  removal,  viz.,  in  1852, 
this  time  to  St.  Charles  on  the  Fox  River  in  Kane 
County,  to  the  day  above  mentioned,  Aug.  31, 
1893,  I  had  never  returned  to  that  spot,  and  I  was 
anxious  to  do  so.  Before  we  went  to  Joliet,  my 


PERSONAL  REMARK  kxi 

brother  Loomis  and  I,  on  that  day  (see  supra, 
p.  liv),  revisited  the  whole  region.  Getting  out 
of  a  way  train  at  the  station  nearest  the  mouth  of 
Ward's  Creek,  we  followed  it  up  to  the  mill-site, 
of  which  only  the  faintest  traces  remained,  and 
on  up  to  the  farm  and  the  house.  But  all  was 
changed.  The  brook  was  dry  and  the  whole 
region  was  transformed.  Forty  years  had  made 
their  ravages,  and  nothing  was  left  but  the  house 
and  the  ground  around  it.  I  will  not  dwell  on 
such  a  theme,  but  I  was  glad  to  have  once  more  seen 
even  the  spot,  if  not  the  scenes,  of  my  childhood. 
St.  Charles  was  only  headquarters  in  the  next 
act  of  the  drama,  a  place  for  my  brother,  Erastus, 
and  me  to  go  to  school,  a  place  to  live  in  the 
winter,  and  for  my  parents  to  have  social  and 
religious  society.  The  objective  point  was  another 
mill-stream  two  miles  north  of  the  village,  in  fact, 
a  mill  already  built,  Norton's  Mill  on  Norton's 
Creek,  which  my  father  had  purchased  along  with 
a  large  tract  of  land,  and  where  for  three  years 
more  I  was  destined  to  struggle  with  nature.  I 
had  to  work,  both  in  the  village  and  at  the  mill, 
but  I  had  much  leisure  time  for  play  and  for  roving 
where  I  pleased.  Here,  on  the  pretty  Fox  River,  I 
learned  to  skate,  and  in  its  clear  waters  in  summer, 
to  swim.  Here  my  brother  Erastus  and  I  aban- 
doned our  bows  and  arrows,  our  cross-guns,  and 
our  bow-guns,  and  bought  with  nuts  we  gathered, 
a  shotgun,  which  we  owned  in  common,  and 
' '  took  turns ' '  in  shooting !  Our  interest  was  trans- 
ferred from  insects  to  birds  and  mammals.  Finally 


Ixxii  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

we  got  each  of  us  a  gun,  and  how  we  did  pursue 
the  small  game  of  the  place!  For  there  was  no 
large  game  there  then.  We  did  also  much  fishing. 
It  was  there  that  occurred  the  event  recorded 
in  Pure  Sociology  on  page  182.  I  enlarge  upon 
it  in  the  sketch  of  that  work  (No.  487),  in  deal- 
ing with  the  burlesque  article  in  the  New  York 
Sun,  where  it  is  characterized  as  a  "fish-story." 
In  all  this  I  always  had  the  companionship  of 
my  next  older  brother,  Erastus,  who,  though  three 
and  a  half  years  older  than  I,  seemed  the  same  age. 
I  was  already  larger  than  he,  and  I  well  remember 
when  I  first  threw  him  in  a  wrestle,  and  ever  after 
that  I  could  easily  "handle"  him.  But  we  were 
exceedingly  congenial,  and  very  fond  of  each  other 
— a  true  Damon  and  Rhintias.  Our  minds  were 
also  about  equivalent,  though  very  unlike,  he 
running  to  mathematics,  and  I  to  languages,  but 
we  were  both  fond  of  nature,  and  spent  most  of 
our  time  in  the  woods  and  fields.  We  attended 
school  in  St.  Charles  in  winter,  and  got  the  ele- 
ments of  an  education. 

This  lasted  about  three  years,  when  in  1855  my 
father  sold  the  Norton's  Mill  property,  and  we 
moved  to  Iowa.  We  traveled  there  in  a  small 
covered  wagon,  not  a  large  "prairie  schooner." 
My  father  and  mother  slept  in  the  wagon  and  my 
brother  and  I  on  the  ground.  We  thus  traveled 
through  the  State  of  Illinois  to  Galena,  crossed  the 
Mississippi  to  Dubuque,  took  a  northwest  course 
to  the  Maquoketa  Creek,  through  Dubuque  and 
Delaware  Counties,  and  settled  in  the  northeast 


PERSONAL  REMARK  Ixxiii 

corner  of  Buchanan  County,  where  my  father 
preempted  a  quarter-section  of  land,  which  was 
subsequently  deeded  to  him  on  his  land  warrant 
for  service  in  the  War  of  1812.  The  journey  was 
made  in  May  and  June,  1855,  and  was  one  of  the 
most  memorable,  as  well  as  most  enjoyable  events 
of  my  early  life.  My  brother  and  I  had  our  guns ; 
there  were  many  water-fowls  and  other  birds, 
some  rabbits  and  squirrels,  and  we  occasionally 
got  a  duck.  We  lived  on  our  game  all  the  way. 
My  mother  prepared  it  and  we  fairly  feasted. 
It  was  the  greatest  opportunity  I  had  ever  had  to 
see  the  world,  and  no  passion  was  stronger  in  my 
nature  than  that  of  adventure.  I  never  have 
been  entirely  free  from  that  passion. 

Two  summers  and  two  winters  were  spent  in  the 
new  home.  They  were  years  of  work,  of  course, 
but,  as  I  look  back  upon  them,  it  seems  as  though 
most  of  my  time  was  spent  in  roaming  over  those 
boundless  prairies,  always  with  a  gun,  killing  the 
game  both  for  sport  and  for  the  table,  and  admir- 
ing nature.  I  believe  I  was  born  a  naturalist,  but 
the  opportunity  to  be  scientific  was  meager — no 
teacher,  no  books  (see  Applied  Sociology,  p.  276). 

In  January,  1857,  my  father  died.  My  mother 
did  not  wish  to  live  longer  in  Iowa,  and  my  oldest 
brother,  Lorenzo,  who  lived  near  us,  was  made  ad- 
ministrator of  the  estate,  and  took  charge  of  it. 
My  mother,  my  brother  Erastus,  and  I  returned 
to  Illinois.  There  was  then  a  railroad  most  of 
the  way,  and  we  went  by  rail.  The  little  home- 
stead in  St.  Charles  still  remained  in  my  mother's 


Ixxiv  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

name,  but  she  preferred  to  live  with  her  only 
daughter  in  Geneva,  two  miles  below  on  the  Fox. 
We  arrived  in  the  spring  of  1857,  and  my  brother 
and  I  found  work  to  do,  but  could  not  be  together. 
He  worked  in  a  machine  shop,  and  I  on  the  farm  of 
a  man  named  Rufus  Smith  near  Lodi,  ten  miles 
west  of  St.  Charles.  In  the  fall  we  resolved  to  go 
to  school  in  St.  Charles,  a  sort  of  grammar  school 
having  recently  been  introduced,  in  which  we  could 
study  algebra,  geometry,  grammar,  and  some 
other  branches  that  we  had  not  been  able  to  pur- 
sue before  for  want  of  a  teacher.  I  also  studied 
French.  My  employer,  Rufus  Smith,  had  lived 
in  Canada  and  spoke  Canadian  French.  I  found 
a  little  book  and  studied  it  evenings  on  the  farm, 
and  he  offered  to  teach  me  the  pronunciation,  but 
I  found  I  had  it  all  to  unlearn  later. 

My  brother  and  I  "kept  bachelor's  hall"  all 
that  winter  in  the  little  house  in  St.  Charles,  and 
we  studied  hard,  for  we  were  both  ambitious  to 
"get  an  education."  But  we  found  time  to  read 
stories,  and  became  intensely  interested  partic- 
ularly in  the  story  of  Mrs.  E.  D.  E.  N.  South- 
worth,  entitled:  "The  Hidden  Hand,"  which  ran 
through  the  New  York  Ledger  that  winter.  We 
also  read  a  good  deal  of  the  "yellow  covered" 
literature,  including  some  blood-curdling  tales  of 
crime  and  murder.  One  of  them,  I  remember, 
was  entitled:  "The  Banditti  of  the  Prairies." 
We  had  nothing  else  to  read,  and  we  did  not  know 
any  better  than  to  read  such  things.  After  read- 
ing them,  for  me  to  sit  down  and  write  a  story  was 


PERSONAL  REMARK  Ixxv 

scarcely  more  than  reflex  action.  I  do  not  think 
Erastus  wrote  any,  but  I  wrote  several,  I  do  not 
know  how  many.  I  have  in  an  envelope  labeled 
"Stories,"  filed  with  my  "unpublished  manu- 
scripts, "  five  of  these,  all  apparently  complete, 
but  not  one  of  them  bears  a  title!  I  never  have 
read  them  since,  and  probably  never  shall.  This 
is  exclusive  of  "The  Spaniard's  Revenge,"  which 
chanced  to  get  printed,  and  therefore  could  not 
logically  be  excluded  from  this  work  (see  No.  i). 

In  the  spring  of  1858,  my  brother  Cyrenus 
Osborn,  nine  years  my  senior,  having  set  up  a 
wagon-hub  factory  at  Myersburg  near  Wysox, 
five  miles  from  Towanda,  Bradford  County, 
Pennsylvania,  and  needing  help  to  conduct  it, 
Erastus  and  I,  at  his  urgent  request,  and  with 
"great  expectations"  as  to  pecuniary  results,  left 
our  native  State  once  more,  and  went  to  join  our 
fortunes  with  his.  I  was  engineer,  but  did  every 
other  kind  of  work.  I  had  Ollendorff 's  Greek 
Grammar,  and  went  through  it  while  about  my 
work.  I  could  then  conjugate  all  the  irregular 
Greek  verbs !  It  was  then,  too,  over  the  arch,  that 
I  studied  Loomis's  Physiology  and  several  other 
text-books.  I  was  also  all  this  time  studying 
French,  German,  and  Latin. 

But  the  business  proved  a  failure.  We  had  to 
take  our  pay  in  wagon-hubs  which  we  could  not 
sell,  and  in  the  winter  of  1 860-61  I  left  my  brother 
and  taught  a  school.  In  the  spring  of  1861  I 
entered  the  Susquehanna  Collegiate  Institute  at 
Towanda.  There  I  had  my  first  surprise,  for, 


Ixxvi  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

autodidact  as  I  was,  I  did  not  suppose  that  the 
knowledge  I  had  picked  up  in  that  way  would 
count  for  anything  in  an  institution  of  learning. 
But  I  found  that  in  Greek  and  Latin,  at  least,  I 
had  distanced  the  foremost  scholars  in  the  school, 
and  had  to  be  advanced  over  class  after  class,  to 
Livy  and  Herodotus.  My  Anabasis  and  ^Eneid 
I  took  home  and  read  them  for  the  history  and 
the  poetry.  I  could  not  say  as  much  for  mathe- 
matics, for  mine  is  not  a  mathematical  mind. 

I  worked  on  a  farm  during  the  summer  of  1861, 
took  the  fall  term  at  the  Institute,  and  taught 
school  the  winter  of  1861-62.  I  took  the  spring 
term  of  1 862  at  the  Institute,  and  was  preparing 
to  go  to  Lafayette  College,  when  a  great  change 
came  over  all  my  plans.  The  war  had  broken  out 
and  raged  all  the  spring.  I  had  hoped  it  might  end, 
but  when  the  President  called  for  "three  hundred 
thousand  more,"  I  could  resist  no  longer.  I 
enlisted  as  a  private  soldier,  and  the  next  twenty- 
seven  months  I  was  in  the  service  of  my  country. 
The  two  letters  from  the  army  which  my  friend 
and  schoolmate  had  printed  in  the  Bradford  Argus 
of  Towanda  (see  Nos.  3,  4),  afford  a  "glimpse"  of 
what  that  meant. 

After  the  war  I  entered  the  civil  service  of  the 
Government,  where  I  remained  for  over  forty 
years;  but  I  filled  many  posts,  and  the  last  twenty- 
four  years  were  devoted  to  scientific  research. 
I  first  intended  my  clerical  service  for  the  Govern- 
ment to  be  merely  a  stepping-stone  to  the  com- 
pletion of  my  academic  studies,  and  I  expected 


PERSONAL  REMARK  Ixxvii 

still  to  go  to  college  as  soon  as  I  could  gain  the 
wherewithal.  But  with  a  wife  and  child  to  sup- 
port, this  was  a  slow  process.  The  difficulty  was 
overcome  when,  in  the  spring  of  1867,  I  persuaded 
Columbian  (now  George  Washington)  University, 
which  had  long  had  evening  classes  in  law  and 
medicine  in  order  to  accommodate  the  Government 
employees,  to  establish  an  academic  school  of  the 
same  kind.  I  entered  it  from  the  beginning  in 
March,  1867,  with  thirty  others.  I  was  examined 
and  classed  as  a  sophomore,  and  the  year  1867-68 
was  my  junior  year.  I  pushed  through  and 
graduated  in  1869.  The  next  two  years  I  took  the 
law  course,  graduating  from  that  in  1871.  After 
that  I  studied  two  more  years  in  a  prescribed 
course  for  the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts,  which 
I  took  in  1872.  It  included  qualitative  chem- 
istry (laboratory  work)  and  practical  anatomy 
(dissection). 

I  was  then  determined  to  go  into  science,  and 
I  immediately  commenced  the  study  of  botany. 
I  also  took  lessons  in  taxidermy  and  learned  to 
make  skins.  In  three  years'  time  I  had  a  respec- 
table herbarium  and  a  collection  of  some  hundred 
bird  skins.  My  scientific  career  had  begun,  and 
after  my  Utah  campaign  of  1875,  I  commenced 
contributing  to  the  scientific  journals.  But  all 
this  time,  from  June  18,  1869,  I  had  also  been 
writing  the  book  which  was  to  be  called  Dynamic 
Sociology,  a  full  history  of  which  is  given  in  its 
place  (see  No.  145).  My  botanical  work  is  de- 
scribed in  the  history  of  my  Guide  to  the  Flora  of 


Ixxviii  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

Washington  and  Vicinity  (No.  119),  and  my 
geological  and  paleobotanical  labors  are  set  forth 
in  the  sketches  of  the  large  illustrated  memoirs 
published  by  the  U.  S.  Geological  Survey  (see  Nos. 
208,  223,  224,  263,  405,  421,  463,  471,  519).  The 
histories  of  my  sociological  books  following  the 
Dynamic  Sociology  are  also  complete,  and  suffi- 
ciently biographical  for  all  purposes  (see  Nos.  349, 
452,  487,  5i8,  523). 

I  will  therefore  close  this  biographical  sketch 
here,  believing  that  the  reader  who  is  curious  to 
know  the  details  of  my  life  will  be  fairly  well 
satisfied  with  what  I  have  here  furnished.  It  is 
plain  and  unvarnished,  and  contains  nothing  of  any 
very  remarkable  interest.  Details  and  anecdotes 
that  I  could  have  introduced  would  have  been 
much  more  pithy  and  spicy  than  the  mere  histori- 
cal facts,  but  this  is  clearly  not  the  place  for  such 
things.  I  will  end  this  part,  as  I  began  it,  by  re- 
peating that,  but  for  a  certain  estimate  that  any 
reader  may  make  to  himself  of  my  contributions 
to  human  thought,  the  life  history  of  the  author 
would  be  practically  jejune. 

The  second  and  only  other  remark  which  I 
wished  to  make  under  this  head  relates  to  my 
ideas  and  my  work  in  general.  What  have  I 
done?  What  have  I  contributed  to  either  the 
knowledge  or  the  thought  of  the  world?  Is  all 
this  array  of  titles  and  of  books  to  be  classed  merely 
as  multa  non  multum,  or  does  it  contain  something 
that  the  world  wants  and  needs?  Of  all  this 


PERSONAL  REMARK  Ixxix 

everyone  must  judge  for  himself,  but  I  thought  it 
would  be  appropriate,  at  the  threshold  of  such  a 
work  as  this,  to  indicate  what  I  claim  to  have 
accomplished.  There  is  no  way  of  preventing  this 
from  sounding  egotistical,  but  how  else  can  it  ever 
be  said?  No  one  else  is  going  to  say  it  for  me. 

In  the  preface  to  Dynamic  Sociology  (pp.  vii, 
viii)  five  distinct  principles  are  enumerated  as 
belonging  especially  to  that  work  and  not  to  be 
found  clearly  enunciated  elsewhere.  I  need  not 
repeat  these  here,  but  reference  will  be  made  to 
them  as  we  proceed.  They  recur  under  different 
names  and  in  modified  and  expanded  forms 
throughout  my  later  writings.  But  to  them  have 
been  added  many  other  principles  which  are 
distinct  from  these,  and  which  have  entered  my 
mind  at  intervals  during  my  life. 

These  contributions  are  of  many  different  kinds, 
and  it  is  difficult  to  classify  or  arrange  them.  The 
broadest  distinction  is  that  between  contributions 
to  knowledge  and  contributions  to  thought.  I 
make  no  claim  to  have  greatly  increased  the  sum 
of  human  knowledge,  in  the  sense  of  discovering 
either  facts  or  laws,  although  most  of  my  contri- 
butions to  thought  might  be  classed  under  the 
second  of  these  heads.  I  shall  not  emphasize 
my  contributions  to  knowledge  in  any  other  sense. 
The  discovery  of  facts  is  so  easy,  and  forms  the 
bulk  of  the  contributions  of  most  men,  even 
scientific  men,  that  I  have  never  considered  my  own 
work  in  that  line  of  sufficient  consequence  to  be 
mentioned.  And  yet,  to  those,  and  there  are  such, 


Ixxx  GLIMPSES  OP  THE  COSMOS 

who  consider  this  the  most  important  form  of 
human  achievement,  I  may  say  that  a  large  part 
of  my  life  has  been  devoted  to  it.  The  nine  large 
illustrated  memoirs  on  fossil  plants,  as  well  as  nu- 
merous minor  contributions  to  both  paleobotany 
and  botany,  contain  little  else  than  a  series  of  dis- 
coveries of  facts,  both  botanical  and  geological, 
made  during  more  than  thirty  years  of  constant 
activity  in  those  fields  (see  supra,  p.  Ixxviii).  Of 
these  I  do  not  propose  to  speak  now  at  all.  It  is 
only  of  ideas  that  I  wish  to  speak,  and  these  are  of 
very  different  kinds.  They  might  be  classed  under 
principles,  on  the  one  hand,  and  truths  on  the  other, 
•i  but  principles  are  truths,  and  the  proper  opposite 
.'j  of  a  principle  is  a  law.  Truth  is  rather  the  generic 
term  for  both.  My  contributions  are  of  both 
these  kinds,  and  there  are  some  that  can  scarcely 
be  classed  as  either  principles  or  laws,  and  yet  they 
must  be  classed  as  truths.  I  have  frequently  set 
forth  these  distinctions,  and  need  not  do  it  here. 
I  shall  not  attempt  an  exhaustive  enumeration  of 
my  practically  new  ideas.  I  will  give  here,  for 
the  most  part  under  the  latest  name  decided  upon, 
and  with  the  minimum  explanation,  a  list  or  series 
of  these  ideas.  But  I  will  say  again  what  I  have 
said  elsewhere,  that  the  ideas  themselves  are  for 
the  most  part  much  older  in  my  mind  than  these 
names,  and  that  many  of  them  were  fully  set  forth 
long  before  I  decided  upon  any  single  word  or  phrase 
by  which  they  could  be  conveniently  designated. 
Nor  is  the  order  in  which  these  ideas  here  stand 
either  logical  or  chronological  in  any  sense  of  these 


PERSONAL  REMARK  Ixxxi 

words.  The  main  object  is  to  set  them  down  where 
they  may  be  seen  together.  Any  attempt  to 
classify  them,  for  the  reasons  above  stated,  would 
be  futile.  And  yet  perhaps  the  reader  may  see 
some  vague  suggestion  of  order,  or  at  least  of 
propriety,  in  the  sequence  here  adopted.  I  cer- 
tainly do,  though  it  would  be  difficult  to  define. 
But  the  numbers  given  to  them  must  not  be 
regarded  as  having  any  value.  If  any  reader 
should  be  interested  in  following  up  any  one  of 
them,  he  will  find  references  in  the  index  to  all 
the  places  where  it  has  been  treated,  even  before 
the  name  had  been  thought  of.  The  growth  of  the 
idea  in  my  mind  may  thus  be  traced. 

1.  Synergy;  the  constructive  principle  of  nature. 

2.  Creation  in  general,  including  recompounding. 

3.  Creative  synthesis.     Wundt's  idea  expanded 
by  me. 

4.  The  nisus  of  nature   or  universal  creative 
energy. 

5.  The  continuity  of  nature  resulting  in  the 
ascending  series  of  synthetic  creations. 

6.  The  natural  storage  of  energy. 

7.  Sympodial  development. 

8.  The  nature  of  motility,  or  transition  from 
molecular  to  molar  activity. 

9.  The  maintenance  of  a  difference  of  potential. 

10.  Fortuitous  variation. 

1 1 .  The  natural  origin  of  mind,  both  of  feeling 
and  of  intellect. 

12.  Telesis,  or  anthropoteleology. 


Ixxxii  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

13.  Innovation  as  a  dynamic  principle. 

14.  Conation,  especially  in  society. 

15.  The  biological  imperative. 

1 6.  Gynaecocracy,  or  the  priority  and  superiority 
of  the  female  sex  throughout  nature. 

17.  The  group  sentiment  of  safety,  or  primor- 
dial social  plasm. 

1 8.  The  elimination  of  the  wayward,   as  the 
essential  function  of  religion. 

This  list,  of  course,  could  be  greatly  extended. 
Many  of  these  laws,  principles,  and  truths  are  very 
broad  and  embrace  subordinate  ones  that  might 
be  treated  independently.  Some  are  closely  re- 
lated to  others  and  run  together,  for  such  is  the 
nature  of  all  truth.  But  as  they  stand  here  they 
constitute  the  essential  elements  of  a  great  cosmic 
philosophy,  which  is  as  nearly  new  as  anything 
can  be  in  the  domain  of  human  thought. 

Now  what  constantly  strikes  me  is  that  ever  and 
anon  some  modern  writer  comes  forward  with 
the  claim  to  the  discovery  of  an  entirely  new  truth. 
In  every  such  case  that  I  have  thus  far  met  with, 
if  it  really  is  a  truth,  it  is  one,  or  some  small  part 
of  one,  that  I  have  not  only  stated  earlier  but, 
at  least  in  most  cases,  have  fully  set  forth,  carefully 
analyzed,  and  connected  with  other  related  truths, 
as  an  integral  part  of  my  system  of  philosophy. 
Such  cases  are  not  generally  plagiarisms,  but  re- 
sult from  complete  lack  of  acquaintance,  on  the 
part  of  those  who  bring  them  forward,  with  me  and 
my  works.  They  may  often  emanate  primarily 


PERSONAL  REMARK  Ixxxiii 

from  me  (see  No.  331,  end  of  sketch),  as  my 
ideas  are  slowly  making  their  way  in  the  world 
and  getting  "in  the  air, "  and  as  the  world  becomes 
ripe  for  them  they  are  seized  upon  by  bright 
minds,  who  imagine  they  have  an  original  thought. 
Much  of  it,  however,  is  due  to  the  Zeitgeist  itself, 
which  is  at  last  tardily  overtaking  me. 

I  could,  if  I  wished  to  give  space  to  it,  support 
these  statements  by  numerous  examples.  I  can 
mention  only  a  few.  Most  of  the  cases  are  more 
or  less  obscure.  New  books  are  constantly  coming 
out  having  some  one  of  these  truths  for  their 
central  thought,  and  when  not  certainly  pure 
plagiarisms  (see  No.  444,  end  of  sketch),  they 
are  to  be  explained  in  the  manner  here  indi- 
cated. Articles  in  the  magazines  and  scientific 
journals  contain  glints  of  my  principles  by  writers 
who  suppose  they  are  saying  something  very 
original  and  brilliant.  I  shall  not  stop  to  enumer- 
ate or  characterize  such.  But  sometimes  an  author 
of  high  standing  and  great  eminence  comes  for- 
ward with  a  work  that  focuses  the  attention  of 
the  thinking  world,  in  which,  along  with  much, 
of  course,  that  is  new  and  original,  and  often  with 
considerable  that  is  questionable  or  positively 
untrue,  these  ideas  upon  which  I  have  been  ringing 
the  changes  for  thirty  years,  are  served  up  as 
something  wholly  new  to  the  world.  I  will  refer 
to  only  one  such  work  here,  because  it  is  the  most 
signal  example  within  my  knowledge.  I  allude 
to  the  Creative  Evolution  of  Henri  Bergson.  I  do 
not  say  that  Bergson  himself  makes  any  such 


Ixxxiv  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

claims  to  originality,  though  he  often  points  out 
how  his  ideas  differ  from  those  of  others,  but  his 
disciples  and  admirers  make  these  claims  for  him, 
and  hold  him  up  as  a  great  new  shining  light  in  the 
world  of  thought,  who  is  revolutionizing  all  the 
extant  ideas  and  creating  an  epoch.  The  most  of 
this  can  be  explained  by  the  fact  that,  though  an 
acknowledged  scholar,  and  even  man  of  science,  he 
reacts  against  the  modern  scientific  tendencies, 
and  there  is  always  a  large  conservative  contingent 
who  are  highly  pleased  with  anything  that  imposes 
an  effective  check  upon  the  march  of  science  and 
truth.  But  there  are  many  truly  eminent  scienti- 
fic men  who  really  believe  that  Bergson  has  a 
message. 

Now,  I  have  carefully  read  the  Evolution  Crea- 
trice  in  the  original,  and  dwelt  long  and  well  upon 
its  main  points,  struggling  hard  with  its  obscurities 
and  alleged  profundities,  and  in  all  due  deference 
to  public  opinion  generally,  as  well  as  to  the  views 
of  many  who  ought  to  be  capable  judges,  I  confess 
that  I  am  unable  to  share  that  extravagant  praise 
that  is  so  freely  lavished  upon  this  work.  This  is 
not  the  place  to  pass  it  in  review,  but  if  I  were  to 
characterize  it  in  the  briefest  possible  terms,  I 
should  say  that  it  was  an  attempt  to  prolong  the 
metaphysical  stage  of  the  celebrated  trois  etats  of 
his  great  countryman,  Auguste  Comte,  whom  he 
does  not  once  mention,  far  into  the  positive  stage, 
or  era  of  science.  That  this  attempt  has  been 
successful  I  most  emphatically  deny.  Of  course 
it  was  easy  to  overthrow  the  theological  doctrine 


PERSONAL  REMARK  Ixxxv 

(finalisme) ,  which  is  already  a  thing  of  the  past 
with  all  awakened  minds,  but  his  attacks  upon 
the  scientific  method  (mecanisme)  are  weak  and 
flimsy,  while  that  nameless  intermediate  doctrine 
which  he  always  pretends  to  call  in,  and  which  can 
be  none  other  than  the  metaphysical  mode  of 
reasoning,  slips  away  and  vanishes  every  time  he 
attempts  to  apply  it. 

It  concerns  us  here  only  to  note  the  alleged  new 
principles  brought  forward  in  the  book.  Let  us 
begin  with  creation,  which  is  the  pivot  upon  which 
his  entire  system  turns.  It  is  said  that  he  has 
given  an  entirely  new  character  to  evolution  by 
showing  that  it  is  creative.  I  should  like  to  know 
if  I  have  not  been  holding  this  idea  up  throughout 
my  whole  career.  I  have  not  only  shown  that 
evolution  is  creative,  but  how  it  is  creative.  Berg- 
son  scarcely  gets  beyond  his  title.  I  have  ex- 
amined every  passage  in  which  he  refers  in  any 
way  to  the  creative  principle,  and  there  is  not  one 
in  which  he  analyzes  the  concept  creation,  or 
shows,  as  I  have  so  often  done,  in  what  creation 
essentially  consists.  He  scarcely  mentions  the 
significant  fact  of  chemical  recompounding  with 
its  bearing  on  creation.  He  fails  to  deal  with 
chemical  organization,  and  least  of  all  does  he 
show,  as  I  have  done,  why  the  higher  compounds 
possess  more  active  properties  than  the  lower  ones, 
by  virtue  of  that  organization,  in  which  the  energy 
stored  up  in  the  lower  stages  is  transferred  un- 
diminished  to  the  higher  ones.  He  seems  to  know 
nothing  of  creative  synthesis,  and  to  be  wholly 


Ixxxvi  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

unacquainted  with  Wundt.  But  I  am  the  only 
one  who  has  attempted  to  show  what  an  all- 
embracing  cosmical  principle  creative  synthesis  is. 

There  are  a  few  passages  in  which  Bergson  gains 
a  faint  glimpse  of  the  principle  of  synergy,  but  the 
idea  is  not  clearly  grasped.  The  same  is  true  of 
the  natural  storage  of  energy,  of  biotic  organization, 
and  of  the  spiritual  nature  of  matter. 

Next  to  his  "creative  evolution,"  the  doctrine 
which  Bergson 's  admirers  lay  most  stress  on  is 
that  which  he  calls  the  "elan  vital."  That  this 
embodies  a  truth  and  a  great  truth  I  fully  agree, 
against  the  views  of  most  biologists,  including  Sir 
E.  Ray  Lankester.  But  it  is  nothing  new.  It  is 
the  "  neo-vitalism "  of  a  modern  school  of  biolo- 
gists (not  of  Reinke  or  Driesch),  but,  not  to 
speak  of  Fechner,  it  was  clearly  set  forth  and 
ably  defended  in  the  last  century  by  the  emi- 
nent botanist  Nageli.  This,  however,  is  only 
from  the  biological  point  of  view,  but  it  is  a 
cosmical  principle,  and  is  in  full  operation  in  all 
departments  of  nature.  In  fact  it  is  nothing  less 
than  the  manifestation  in  the  organic  world  of  the 
nisus  of  nature,  the  universal  energy,  making  for 
higher  stages  of  being.  This  is  no  metaphysical, 
still  less  theological,  conception,  but  is  an  ob- 
served fact  in  every  department  of  nature.  It 
is  the  broadest  of  all  principles.  While  I  have 
set  it  forth  in  my  earliest  writings,  the  most 
condensed  form  in  which  I  have  ever  stated  it 
is  in  the  opening  paragraph  of  Chapter  VIII  (p. 
136)  of  Pure  Sociology. 


PERSONAL  REMARK  Ixxxvii 

Bergson  gives  out  some  vague  intimations  that 
the  intellect  may  have  had  a  natural  origin,  but 
they  are  faint  and  feeble,  and  are  finally  swamped 
in  his  intuitionalism,  which  is  pure  metaphysics. 
His  "intuition"  has  nothing  to  do  with  my  "omit- 
ted factor,"  and  there  is  no  analysis  of  psychic 
phenomena,  either  objective  or  subjective.  Con- 
trast this  with  Part  II  of  The  Psychic  Factors  of 
Civilization.  That  he  has  no  grasp  of  scientific 
principles  may  be  seen  by  his  Utopian  speculations 
as  to  the  possibility  of  lif  e  in  the  sun  and  fixed  stars, 
and  this  with  a  full  knowledge  of  the  tempera- 
tures of  those  bodies.  To  hold  up  such  a  work  as 
a  scientific  treatise  is  to  return  to  pre-Copernican 
science. 

In  the  latter  part  of  his  book  Bergson  shows  his 
colors  completely,  and  comes  forth  a  pure  metaphy- 
sician. But  he  thinks  he  has  made  a  great  dis- 
covery that  distinguishes  him  from  all  other 
metaphysicians.  Instead  of  regarding  the  con- 
ception of  time  as  derived  from  that  of  space,  and 
that  of  space  from  that  of  matter  and  motion, 
as  it  is  becoming  quite  fashionable  to  do,  he  makes 
time  (duration)  the  basis  of  everything,  and  plants 
his  entire  system  upon  that  idea.  He  reifies 
duration  and  derives  from  it  all  that  exists — 
form,  life,  mind.  But  our  notion  of  the  external 
world  is  kaleidoscopic,  and  the  universe  is  to  us 
nothing  but  a  series  of  moving  pictures  (kine- 
matographs) ! 

Before  closing  he  pays  his  respects  to  Spinoza, 
Leibnitz,  Kant,  and  Spencer.  I  will  say  nothing 


Ixxxviii         GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

of  his  treatment  of  the  first  three,  but  Spencer, 
whose  ideas,  as  the  reader  can  see,  have  chiefly 
inspired  his  work,  though  of  course  as  objects  of 
attack,  he  disposes  of  in  a  very  few  pages.  Spencer 
is  not  a  philosopher  at  all,  and  all  because,  instead 
of  making  a  universe  out  of  whole  cloth,  as  a  true 
philosopher  must  do,  he  took  the  one  he  found  and 
did  the  best  he  could  with  it.  If  Bergson  had 
known  me  and  deigned  to  mention  me,  I  should 
have  shared  the  same  fate,  and  so  of  all  who  deal 
with  realities.  He  has  no  patience  with  the  con- 
crete or  the  real,  and  recognizes  only  the  abstract 
and  ideal.  In  fact  there  is  no  place  in  his  scheme 
for  observation,  and  the  only  faculty  called  out 
by  it  is  imagination. 

Bergson  will  have  to  stand  as  a  type  of  many, 
though  all  would  differ  in  some  essential  respects. 
But,  as  already  remarked,  various  authors  and 
writers  are  constantly  coming  forward  with  my 
views  as  their  own,  and  as  wholly  new.  For 
example,  nothing  is  more  common  now,  even 
among  psychologists,  than  to  emphasize  the  im- 
portance of  feeling  as  a  psychic  phenomenon,  often 
defending  the  supposed  strange  view  that  feeling 
belongs  to  mind,  and  always  maintaining  that  it 
has  not  only  been  neglected,  but  that  no  one  before 
has  ever  treated  it!  I  omit  names,  because  I  do 
not  wish  to  be  drawn  into  controversy.  But  no 
one  ever  shows  that  mind  consists  of  two  generically 
distinct  things,  feeling  and  thought,  or  explains 
the  distinction  between  intensive  and  indifferent 
sensation,  which  underlies  this  classification,  and 


PERSONAL  REMARK  kxxix 

without  a  clear  idea  of  which  the  essential  nature 
of  mind  cannot  be  understood. 

In  Germany  there  is  now  a  flood  of  new  books, 
especially  along  monistic  lines.  The  writers  are 
all  ignorant  of  my  works,  although  my  Pure 
Sociology  has  been  translated  into  German.  The 
air  of  Germany  is  filled  with  these  advanced  ideas, 
and  when  anyone  becomes  saturated  with  them 
he  sits  down  and  writes  a  book.  Some  of  these  are 
able  works,  and  set  forth  these  ideas  from  the 
various  standpoints  of  their  authors,  causing  them 
to  be  seen  from  different  angles  of  vision,  which 
is  very  useful  and  greatly  to  be  desired.  But 
claims  to  originality,  except  from  these  new  view- 
points, are  uniformly  unfounded,  and  the  princi- 
ples themselves  are  not  new.  The  greater  part  of 
them  are  to  be  found  in  my  works,  dating  back  ten, 
twenty,  or  even  thirty  years. 


Glimpses  of  the   Cosmos 


March  (?),  1858—JEtat.  16. 

1.    The  Spaniard's  Revenge 

History. — This  is  the  only  one  of  several  stories 
written  by  me  in  the  winter  of  1857-8  and  spring 
of  1858  that  had  the  honor  of  getting  printed.  It 
is  the  only  one  that  I  offered  to  the  press,  and  I 
remember  my  surprise  at  its  acceptance  (without 
compensation)  by  the  editor  of  the  St.  Charles 
(Illinois)  Argus.  I  had  been  reading  stories,  and 
to  sit  down  and  write  them  was  little  more  than  an 
imitative  impulse  of  a  schoolboy.  I  think  this 
was  the  last  one  I  wrote,  and  I  then  thought  it  was 
the  best.  I  do  not  think  the  idea  of  publishing 
any  of  them  had  occurred  to  me  until  after  I  had 
written  this.  Before  offering  it  I  rewrote  it  entirely, 
enlarged  it  considerably,  and,  as  I  thought,  greatly 
improved  it.  It  appeared  in  two  consecutive 
numbers  of  the  St.  Charles  Argus,  probably  in 
March  or  April,  1858,  over  the  signature  "L.  F. 
Ward."  I  left  St.  Charles  in  May,  I  think,  of  the 
same  spring  and  went  to  Pennsylvania  to  live 
with  my  brother.  I  remember  that  I  took  with 


2  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

me  both  numbers  of  the  paper,  but  I  had  no  place 
to  keep  things,  and  had  not  yet  acquired  the  habit 
of  preserving  anything,  and  they  were  lost.  Within 
the  last  twenty  years,  having  preserved  a  copy  of 
everything  else  that  I  ever  wrote  and  published, 
I  have  made  strenuous  efforts  to  obtain  the  numbers 
of  the  St.  Charles  Argus  containing  the  story,  but 
without  success.  In  1895  I  offered  a  reward 
($25)  for  them,  and  paid  my  brother,  then  living 
in  St.  Charles,  to  make  a  thorough  search,  which 
he  did,  but  without  result. 

As  this  story  comes  under  the  general  rule  of 
having  been  written  by  me  and  printed,  my  only 
excuse  for  omitting  it  would  be  that  no  copy  of  it 
could  be  found.  But  I  possess  the  original  draft, 
which,  as  stated,  was  copied,  enlarged,  altered 
considerably,  and  no  doubt  much  improved.  This 
draft,  however,  seems  to  be  complete,  and  may  not 
be  so  greatly  inferior  to  the  final  one.  If  that,  or 
the  printed  copy,  had  been  preserved  it  would 
seem  sufficiently  immature  and  worthless,  so  that 
I  conclude  to  let  this  go  in  for  the  historical  value 
that  it  has  of  inaugurating  my  literary  career. 

The  Saint  Charles  Argus,  St.  Charles,  111.,  March  (?),  1858. 


ON  the  green  banks  of  the  Republican  Fork  of  the 
Kansas  River  were  encamped  a  small  party  of 
hunters  and  trappers.     They  were  all  busily  en- 
gaged preparing  their  supper,  which  was  to  consist  of  duck 
soup,  bread,  and  prairie  hen's  eggs,  and  in  skinning  and 
dressing  what  game  they  had  been  lucky  enough  to  procure 
during  the  day. 


THE  SPANIARD'S  REVENGE  3 

The  sun  had  just  sunk  in  the  west,  and  all  around 
seemed  animated  and  lively,  and  as  the  coarse  notes  of 
the  rustic  trappers  echoed  against  the  groves  and  were 
driven  back  across  the  prairies,  they  even  seemed  to  have 
a  peculiar  harmony,  as  they  mingled  themselves  with  the 
clear  and  variable  chirps  of  the  blue-bird,  and  the  sharp 
continued  tones  of  the  thrush,  after  all  the  rest  of  the 
feathered  tribe  had  hushed  their  music,  and  all  the  noisy 
waterfowls  were  still. 

Their  meal  was  nearly  prepared,  when  a  sudden  neigh- 
ing of  their  horses  announced  to  them  that  something  new 
was  in  the  wind.  "What  you  suppose  that  is?"  asked 
Sam  Greggs  deliberately. 

"Oh!  it 's  some  tarnal  varmint  o'  some  kind  over  the  hill 
thar,  sposen  we  goes  over  there,"  said  Joe  Lyons. 

"Well,"  said  Sam,  catching  his  rifle,  "come,  boys,  let's 
two  or  three  of  us  jist  pop  our  heads  over  the  knoll  and 
see  what 's  up,  maybe  it 's  a  deer  or  an  elk  over  thar." 

"You  're  the  ones  to  go  then,"  said  Jack  Lyman,  "for  I 
guess  you  're  all  that 's  scared." 

"What  de  ye  mean?  You  don't  s'pose  we  're  scart  do 
you?"  said  Joe. 

"  Come  on  Joe,  you  know  that  Jack  don't  know  nothing," 
said  Sam,  starting  off  for  the  top  of  the  hill,  but  he  had 
gone  but  a  few  steps  before  he  saw  through  the  fast  ap- 
proaching darkness,  something  upon  the  knoll  making  a 
dead  line  for  the  camp.  He  stopped  a  moment  to  let  him 
get  nearer,  and  soon  ascertained  that  it  was  a  man  on 
horse-back.  He  was  mounted  on  a  deep  bay  horse,  which 
he  rode  directly  into  the  camp,  and  addressing  Jack  Lyman 
in  broken  English,  he  said:  "Please  sir,  will  you  give  me 
something  to  eat  to-night,  for  I  have  been  three  days  with- 
out food  except  what  I  could  dig  from  the  ground." 

"Oh!  yes,"  said  Jack,  "I  guess  we  can  accommodate  you 
somehow,  go  and  picket  your  horse  then  come  back  to  the 
camp,  we  was  jest  goin'  to  set  down  to  eat  our  supper." 

The  new-comer  was  a  large  athletic  fellow,  well-propor- 


4  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

tioned,  and  over  six  feet  high,  he  carried  a  rifle  of  immense 
dimensions,  a  brace  of  revolvers,  and  a  bowie-knife,  and 
from  his  sallow  and  greasy  features,  and  black  shining  and 
curly  hair,  he  was  immediately  taken  by  the  trappers  for 
a  half  breed  of  Mexico.  When  he  returned  to  the  camp  he 
was  greeted  by  a  shower  of  questions  concerning  his  singu- 
lar journeying,  where  he  had  come  from,  and  where  he 
was  going,  to  which  he  gave  indifferent  answers,  and  they 
took  their  seats  by  the  fire. 

He  seemed  much  fatigued  and  extremely  hungry,  and 
it  was  impossible  to  draw  anything  of  a  conversation  from 
him  that  night.  They  went  to  rest  at  an  early  hour,  and  a 
close  watch  was  kept  of  the  new-comer,  but  it  was  altogether 
a  useless,  though  not  imprudent,  proceeding  on  the  part  of 
the  wary  trappers,  for  he  slept  soundly  all  night,  and  when 
he  awoke  in  the  morning  his  breakfast  was  nearly  prepared. 

On  awaking  he  apologized  for  his  deep  sleep  by  saying  that 
he  was  very  tired  from  traveling  the  day  before,  and  rub- 
bing his  eyes  he  jumped  from  his  robe  and  went  out  to 
look  to  his  horse,  which  he  found  had  been  newly  picketed, 
and  taken  care  of,  and  returned  to  the  camp.  By  this 
time  breakfast  was  ready  and  the  group  gathered  around 
the  fire  to  partake  of  it.  The  stranger  felt  much  refreshed 
from  his  night's  rest,  and  seemed  to  be  more  conversant 
than  he  had  been  the  night  before.  The  trappers  informed 
him  that  they  were  calculating  to  remain  there  all  that  day 
in  consequence  of  the  surplus  of  game  thereabouts,  and 
requested  him  to  remain  with  them,  for  they  were  desirous 
of  drawing  something  from  their  guest  pertaining  to  his 
apparently  romantic  life.  He  said  he  would  stay  for  the 
sake  of  resting  himself,  one  day  more. 

During  the  day  he  traveled  about  with  the  men  seeing  to 
their  traps  and  hunting,  and  the  exquisite  dexterity  with 
which  he  used  his  gun  and  pistols,  soon  convinced  our 
trappers  that  he  was  something  more  than  a  simple  Greaser 
or  Guerilla,  and  induced  them  more  strongly  to  try  to  draw 
from  him  his  true  history. 


THE  SPANIARD'S  REVENGE  5 

That  night  when  they  were  all  gathered  around  the  fire, 
after  partaking  sumptuously  of  the  fat  butter-ducks  and 
fried  pike,  with  which  their  supper  abounded,  they  began 
to  chat  very  cleverly,  when  Joe  Lyons  spoke  up  quickly: 
"Sam  go  and  git  that  'are  jug,  we  want  something  kind  o' 
good  to-night. " 

"Yes,  for  pity's  sakes  do,  why  did  n't  we  think  of  that 
last  night,  when  this  feller  was  about  dead?"  said  a  number 
more  almost  in  unison.  The  jug  was  brought  and  each  one 
took  their  dip.  The  guest  feigned  to  be  ignorant  of  the 
fluid,  and  when  it  was  passed  to  him  he  declined,  saying 
he  did  not  wish  to  drink  anything  until  he  knew  what  it 
was. 

Although  he  acted  with  great  aptness  and  cunning,  yet 
the  old  experienced  eyes  of  Sam  Greggs  saw  through  it  all 
at  once,  and  taking  two  of  the  party  clandestinely  away 
from  the  camp,  out  among  the  horses,  he  said:  "Now  boys, 
if  ever  we  find  that  'are  feller  out  we  '11  find  him  to  be 
a  perfect  knave,  boys  mark  this,  that  feller  has  traveled 
somewhere  besides  on  this  prairie,  and  mind  too,  I  tell  you 
if  we  can  draw  him  out,  his  story  '11  be  some  interesting, 
if  not  more,  and  the  only  way  for  us  to  do  that  is  to  stuff 
him  till  we  get  him  jolly. " 

They  returned  to  the  camp  and  Sam  declared  he  must 
have  another  drink  of  that  pure  old  "Oporto,"  and  taking 
the  jug  he  began  to  swig  it  in  a  regular  downright  style, 
then  dropping  it  upon  his  knee  he  remarked:  "Well  I  do 
declare  if  that  don't  make  me  twinge  fairly!  Here,  pass  it 
around  again. "  By  the  time  it  had  gone  to  the  silent  guest, 
Sam  had  made  so  many  remarks  about  it,  that  he  could 
contain  himself  no  longer,  and  grasping  the  jug,  he  com- 
menced pouring  it  down  his  throat.  He  drank  profusely, 
and  talked  rapidly,  and  in  a  short  time  he  was  in  good  spirits. 
His  conversation  ran  in  a  scattered  manner,  and  he  seemed 
to  like  to  tell  his  own  story.  At  length  Sam  expressed  a 
desire  to  have  him  begin  at  the  beginning  of  his  story, 
and  tell  it  all,  to  which  proposition  all  the  rest  of  the  boys 


6  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

quickly  acquiesced.  He  excused  himself  by  saying  that 
he  had  done  something  in  his  life  which  he  could  never  tell. 

"  Well, "  said  Joe,  "tell  what  you  had  just  as  lives  as  not, 
then."  "Yes,  give  us  a  yarn  o'  some  kind,"  said  two  or 
three  of  the  ready-to-be-attentive  rustics,  in  almost  the 
same  breath. 

"I  will  tell  you  one  of  the  little  incidents  that  happened 
to  me  when  I  was  in  Spain,"  said  he  quickly  and  eagerly, 
and  then  dropping  his  eyes  intently  upon  the  dying  embers 
of  the  camp-fire,  he  appeared  to  be  deeply  meditating. 

"Oh!  we  're  all  ears, "  said  Sam,  "go  ahead. " 

"I  was  born  in  Tabasco,"  said  he,  "at  the  mouth  of  the 
river  of  the  same  name.  My  father  was  a  sea  captain  for 
ten  years,  and  afterwards  he  purchased  a  small  brig  of  his 
own,  and  before  I  was  eight  years  old,  I  had  been  with  him 
to  Spain,  and  at  the  age  of  twelve,  I  again  visited  the  old 
world  where  I  remained  until  I  was  fifteen.  My  usual 
residence  at  this  time  was  in  the  city  of  Madrid.  Here  for 
two  years  I  spent  my  time  in  loitering  around  the  city,  and 
carousing  among  the  boys  with  whom  the  city  was  thronged. 
My  father  furnished  me  with  plenty  of  money,  and  I 
thought  I  enjoyed  myself  extremely  well.  Then  I  took  to 
the  sea,  and  for  three  years  I  sailed  around  in  company  with 
my  father,  when  we  returned  home  where  I  spent  a  quiet 
year  of  rest.  I  was  nineteen  years  old  when  I  again  re- 
turned to  Madrid.  Nearly  all  my  old  companions  were  gone 
and  I  felt  quite  alone.  Soon,  however,  I  found  friends  in  a 
family  named  Palibo.  They  were  very  wealthy  and  the 
very  cream  of  Madrid.  Among  the  four  children  of  this 
wealthy  citizen,  was  a  lovely  girl  about  the  age  of  seventeen, 
young,  blooming,  and  happy,  with  whom  I  made  the  time 
pass  rapidly  for  several  months.  We  walked  arm-in-arm 
through  the  streets,  sat  side  by  side  in  the  richly-adorned 
parlor,  and  strolled  confidentially  through  the  sweet  and 
salubrious  gardens  and  environs  of  the  rich  man's  palace. 

"  To  this  feminine  beauty  I  pledged  my  heart  and  fortune, 
which  was  accepted  with  warmest  gratitude,  and  an  engage- 


THE  SPANIARD'S  REVENGE  7 

ment  was  made  within  four  months  from  the  time  of  my 
arrival  in  the  city.  But  a  crisis  was  fast  approaching, 
which  threw  up  all  of  our  former  resolutions,  overturned 
our  course  of  pursuance,  and  put  a  sudden  and  unexpected 
stop  to  that-object  which  was  ever  uppermost  in  our  minds. 
Don  Palibo  had  gone  away  to  America  but  a  few  weeks 
after  my  arrival  at  this  palace.  He  thought  me  only  a 
friend  of  his  son's  who  had  introduced  me  to  his  circle,  but 
he  did  not  dream  of  my  intimacy  with  his  fair  daughter, 
but  when  he  received  intelligence  that  I  was  yet  there,  and 
that  fears  were  entertained  of  my  making  love  to  her,  he 
immediately  returned  home.  While  yet  he  was  carefully 
watching  the  progress  of  our  love,  and  only  three  days  after 
his  arrival,  from  America,  he  was  taken  by  a  singular 
surprise.  As  we  were  quietly  reposing  in  the  open  porch, 
Don  Palibo  and  I,  the  thought  struck  me  that  now  was  as 
fortunate  a  time  as  any  perhaps  for  the  introduction  of  my 
all  absorbing  cause,  and  borrowing  all  the  fermetS  I  could 
summon,  I  explained  my  true  and  grateful  love  for  Cindrella, 
and  requested  his  consent  for  our  immediate  union.  But, 
Ah!  how  little  I  dreamed  that  my  innocent  plea  would 
arouse  such  an  indignant  fire  in  the  eyes  of  Don  Palibo! 
For  a  moment  he  sat  and  said  not  a  word,  then  arising 
suddenly  to  his  feet,  he  exclaimed:  'Ah!  you  rascal,  I  've 
found  you  out  at  last,  who  would  suppose  it?  The  very 
object  of  my  return;  three  days  I  have  watched  this  das- 
tardly proceeding,  but  now  you  have  explained  it  all !  Three 
months,  yes,  more,  have  I  abode  you,  you  treacherous  vil- 
lain, and  now  you  would  throw  yourself  upon  me  by  marry- 
ing my  only  daughter;  this  day  you  will  leave  my  palace,  and 
if  you  ever  cross  my  threshold  again,  you  impertinent  vaga- 
bond, my  sword  shall  pierce  your  heart !  Be  gone,  you  im- 
pudence, from  my  sight,  and  mind  this,  if  ever  your  presence 
is  made  known  within  my  walls,  your  life  is  a  forfeit ! ' 

"I  left  from  that  hour,  but  when  I  returned  'twas  to  his 
bitter  sorrow.  But  poor  Cindrella!  When  she  received 
the  news  of  my  abrupt  departure,  it  touched  her  heart  with 


8  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

sympathy.  Don  Palibo  immediately  chose  a  companion 
for  his  afflicted  daughter  from  among  the  genteel  of  the 
capital,  but  it  was  in  vain  that  he  persuaded  this  unhappy 
and  unsolicited  match.  Cindrella  would  hear  nothing  to 
such  proposals,  but  declared  that  she  would  go  sooner  to 
the  convent,  and  spend  her  days  under  the  black  veil,  than 
be  united  in  ties  of  everlasting  bondage  to  a  man  she  could 
not  endure.  'Go  to  the  nunnery,  then,  if  you  like,'  said 
her  father.  'Prepare  me  and  I  will  go  immediately,'  she 
answered.  And  he  did  prepare  her,  and  she  did  go  to  the 
convent,  and  assumed  the  black  veil  at  once.  Gentlemen, 
you  may  at  once  settle  it  in  your  minds  that  my  dander 
was  up  when  I  heard  of  this  melancholy  proceeding.  I 
resolved  to  free  the  girl  if  there  was  any  such  thing.  I 
plunged  into  every  vice  in  the  city  of  Madrid.  I  gambled, 
I  cheated,  I  drank,  and  I  caroused  about  the  streets  like  a 
madman,  until  at  length,  I  found  myself  in  company  of  a 
reckless  set  of  city  rebels.  Deeper  and  deeper  did  I  plunge 
into  these  desperate  schemers'  plans.  At  present  I  cannot 
express  in  words  the  horrible  crimes  which  were  committed 
among  that  band  of  desperadoes.  Two  years  did  I  pass 
in  this  way  which  now  appear  like  a  blank  page  in  the  history 
of  my  miserable  existence ! 

"I  will  skip  the  gloomy  period  and  pass  on  to  the  last  and 
most  desperate  act  of  my  life  of  crime.  I  had  so  fully 
gained  the  confidence  of  my  comrades  that  they  began  to 
look  to  me  for  counsel,  and  nothing  could  be  acted  upon 
without  my  consent,  but  yet  it  was  long  before  I  dared  to 
explain  my  misery 

"One  day,  however,  while  we  were  all  sitting  around  a 
table  playing  cards,  and  amusing  ourselves  over  the  rich 
demijohn,  we  got  wonderfully  merry,  and  before  I  knew 
what  I  was  doing,  I  had  told  my  eagerly  listening  friends, 
who  were  by  chance  more  sober  than  myself,  all  my  sad 
story,  but  contrary  to  my  more  sober  expectations,  they 
highly  applauded  the  notion  which  I  had  mentioned  of 
penetrating  the  convent. 


THE  SPANIARD'S  REVENGE  9 

"  Now  that  I  had  made  known  my  secret  thoughts  to  my 
friends,  and  that  they  had  so  voluntarily  acquiesced  in 
them,  I  resolved  to  carry  them  out  to  the  utmost  degree. 
Preparations  were  speedily  made  to  bring  them  into  action, 
and  the  next  Sunday  night,  six  men  of  whom  I  was  the 
leader,  armed  with  pistols  and  bowie-knives  and  stilettoes, 
and  prepared  with  keys  of  all  sizes,  shapes,  and  dimensions 
to  fit  any  lock  in  our  way,  carefully  unlocked  the  outside 
door  of  the  dark  and  gloomy  convent,  and  quietly  passing 
in  closed  the  great  wooden  door  behind  us.  We  had  India 
rubber  upon  our  feet  to  prevent  noise  and  a  dim  lantern 
led  the  gloomy  way! 

"Passing  through  a  long  dreary  and  evacuated  hall,  we 
reached  a  door  that  led  up  to  the  stairs.  That  was  also 
locked  and  bolted  on  the  inside,  but  among  the  many  tools 
for  such  purposes,  which  we  had,  we  contrived  to  lead  our 
way  through  four  long  winding  pairs  of  stairs.  As  yet  we 
had  encountered  no  individual,  but  now  there  was  no  es- 
caping the  dread  of  passing  through  two  rooms  which  were 
occupied  by  young  nuns  of  the  third  degree.  Fortunately 
their  doors  were  all  unlocked  and  ajar,  and  carefully  did 
we  tread  their  carpeted  floors,  and  passing  through  without 
awaking  any  one,  we  found  ourselves  in  a  long  dreary  hall 
with  doors  on  either  side,  within  eight  or  ten  feet  of  each 
other,  along  the  walls.  The  door  through  which  we  had 
last  passed  was  painted  a  lively  white,  and  singularly  enough 
did  it  and  all  those  upon  that  side  contrast  with  the  black 
and  gloomy  walls  and  doors  opposite  to  them,  as  the  dim 
and  ghastly  light  of  our  lantern  pointed  to  us  the  fearful 
task  which  we  were  obliged  to  perform. 

"My  experience  among  these  convents,  which  was  not 
inconsiderable,  guided  me  along  the  whole  length  of  the 
deserted  hall,  until  I  reached  the  most  westerly  end,  and 
then  plying  several  keys  to  the  door  before  me,  I  at  length 
succeeded  in  opening  it.  Stealthily  did  I  enter,  and  casting 
my  eyes  around  the  apartment,  I  perceived  a  bed  or  couch 
in  the  most  opposite  corner,  and  on  that  bed  lay  a  single 


io  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

human  form,  but  the  head  was  so  nearly  covered  up  as 
only  to  exhibit  some  brown  curls  lying  loosely  back  upon 
the  pillow. 

"  My  heart  leaped  within  me  as  I  beheld  the  fair  head  of 
my  long  lost  Cindrella,  and  prudence  alone  prevented  me 
from  bounding  with  an  exclamation  of  joy  to  her  bedside; 
but  prudence  did  prevent  it.  Carefully  did  I  proceed  to  her 
bedside,  and  with  the  lantern  dimly  shining  down  upon  her 
I  uncovered  her  fair  brow,  which  however,  had  already 
begun  to  wrinkle  with  toil  and  hardships,  and  before  she 
had  time  to  awake,  I  pressed  my  last  farewell  kiss  upon  it. 
But  't  was  my  last.  She  immediately  awoke,  recognized 
me,  and  staring  up  into  my  face  whispered  my  name.  I 
told  her  I  had  come  to  rescue  her  and  have  her  for  my  bride. 
She  seemed  perfectly  composed,  and  when  I  told  her  that 
I  had  seven  men  well  armed  at  her  door,  ready  against  any 
assault,  she  arose  immediately  and  after  cautiously  getting 
a  few  such  necessaries  as  she  needed,  we  left  the  room  to  its 
fate.  But  with  what  horror  did  my  heart  thrill  on  reaching 
the  door,  at  not  seeing  a  single  one  of  my  companions! 
They  had  fled!  I  think  my  mind  was  never  so  highly 
excited  as  it  was  then.  I  glared  around  into  the  dark  door- 
ways and  through  the  desolate  hall,  but  not  a  companion 
had  I.  My  brain  was  in  a  perfect  state  of  fermentation. 
'Have  they  indeed  left  me?'  thought  I,  'traitors  to  their 
most  humble  servant !  Oh !  my  God !  am  I  left  alone  in  this 
awful  place !  God  forbid ;  it  is  only  a  dream.  No !  Oh,  no ! 
it  is  but  an  awful  dream !  But  alas !  't  was  too  true !  What 
had  I  left?  How  could  I  fly?  Where  could  I  go?  How 
could  I  soothe  the  poor  girl  whom  I  had  told  that  I  had 
friends.  Alas!  what  could  I  do?  I  must  not  give  up  to 
despair,  and  what  had  I  now  to  make  me  hope?  Thank 
God!  I  had  prudence.  Oh!  how  invaluable  is  prudence! 
I  had  endeavored  to  conceal  my  feelings  of  horror  from 
Cindrella,  but  in  vain,  she  had  now  and  then  caught  a 
glimpse  of  my  desperate-looking  face,  and  had  read  it  all. 
But  she  also  was  prudent  and  held  her  peace.  In  order 


THE  SPANIARD'S  REVENGE  u 

to  make  her  more  confident  and  composed,  I  whispered: 
'  Come  on,  dearest ;  I  know  a  direct  passage  to  the  outside 
door,  and  all  the  intervening  doors  are  open,  and  when  we 
reach  there,  there  will  be  no  more  danger  for  there  are 
posted  my  friends.' 

"  I  could  see  that  she  read  the  true  meaning  of  this  remark, 
and  taking  her  by  her  little  white  and  delicate  hand,  we 
passed  silently  along  through  the  narrow  hall,  and  then 
through  two  rooms,  before  mentioned,  without  any  dis- 
turbance. There  lay  the  young  nuns  fast  asleep,  and  in 
exactly  the  same  form  as  when  we  passed  in;  there  stood 
the  doors  a  little  ajar,  as  though  they  had  not  moved; 
and  there  also  were  the  four  long  and  dreary  stairs,  dark 
and  evacuated.  But  where  were  my  treacherous  comrades? 
Alas!  I  knew  not!  However,  I  now  felt  comparatively  safe, 
in  case  the  treacherous  villains  would  not  report  my  strange 
proceeding,  and  arrest  my  escape  from  the  convent.  But 
would  they  dare  to  do  this?  Had  their  hearts  so  hardened 
in  their  long  routine  of  crime  that  they  could  turn  traitor 
to  their  best  friend  and  leave  him  in  this  awful  predicament 
to  the  mercy  of  the  world?  "T  was  even  so.  While  I  was 
thus  pondering  and  soliloquizing,  we  had  passed  down  two 
of  the  dark  stairways,  and  were  just  entering  the  third, 
when  I  fancied  I  heard  a  slight  noise  at  the  foot,  and  evi- 
dently enough  I  could  see  a  dim  flickering  of  smothered  light. 
I  knew  it  could  be  none  of  my  men  from  the  fact  that  they 
carried  no  light;  and  Oh!  the  horrid  feelings  which  I  under- 
went, it  is  impossible  to  describe!  Tighter  did  I  cling  to 
my  wretched  heroine,  and  stronger  appeared  my  infuriated 
grasp  upon  my  deadly  weapon!  Exasperated  by  the 
thought  of  my  treacherous  and  cowardly  companions, 
infuriated  by  the  fixed  determination  of  revenge  upon  them, 
and  also  Don  Palibo,  and  terrified  by  the  predominant  fear 
of  losing  all  together  with  my  own  life,  before  I  could  escape 
from  the  convent,  I  moved  on  fixedly  towards  the  foot  of 
the  stairs.  My  tremulousness  had  now  entirely  vanished, 
and  clinging  to  my  love  and  my  weapons,  I  felt  ready  to  die 


12  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

in  the  cause,  could  I  only  free  the  damsel.  But  how  could 
she  be  freed  unless  I  was?  She  could  not!  Before  we 
reached  the  foot  of  the  stairs,  I  had  so  unconsciously  aug- 
mented the  grasp  on  her  arm,  she  began  to  cringe  from  its 
effects.  Just  as  we  set  our  feet  upon  the  lower  floor,  and 
my  eyes  commenced  searching  the  chamber  for  the  where, 
abouts  of  the  mysterious  light,  which  I  could  yet  see  flicker- 
ing about  the  apartment,  two  stout  ruffians  started  from 
behind  the  door,  and  one  of  them  grasped  Cindrella  by  the 
throat.  The  other  made  a  grab  for  mine,  but  he  missed, 
and  that  second  I  plunged  my  stilletto  to  his  heart,  and  he 
fell  heavily  upon  the  floor,  a  corpse!  But  before  I  could 
despatch  my  other  foe,  six  more  rebels  instantly  jumped 
from  a  closet  door,  and  rushed  upon  us.  I  saw  that  they 
were  well  armed,  and  felt  little  hopes  of  ever  getting  clear 
of  them,  but  I  fought  desperately  with  my  revolvers,  hardly 
noticing  whom  I  fired  upon ;  till,  to  my  horror,  I  saw  Cindrella 
fall,  staggering  to  the  floor  before  my  unguarded  revolver, 
and  with  a  cry  of  '  Oh !  God ! '  I  sprang  to  her  side,  regardless 
of  the  imminent  danger  to  which  I  exposed  myself,  when  at 
that  instant  I  saw  to  my  relief,  my  only  two  remaining  foes, 
doubtless  taking  this  for  a  more  pointed  attack,  jump  into 
the  little  closet  and  close  the  door.  I  poured  the  two 
remaining  balls  of  my  revolver  at  the  closing  door,  which 
were  followed  by  a  heavy  fall,  and  deep  groans,  and  then 
dropping  upon  my  knees  beside  my  yet  dearest  love,  I 
cried :  '  Oh !  Heaven  forgive  me  for  I  have  murdered  you,  in 
the  name  of  God  will  you  forgive  me,  and  believe  me 
sincere?  My  treacherous  companions  have  reported  me. 
and  I  never  expect  to  leave  the  convent  alive;  but  once 
more  in  the  name  of  God,  the  Holy  Father,  I  ask,  will  you 
forgive  me,  and  think  me  sincere?  And  I  shall  die  in  peace. ' 
Her  brown  tresses  lay  carelessly  floating  upon  the  floor  in 
the  blood  of  those  whom  I  had  slain,  while  her  life's  blood 
was  gushing  out  of  the  fatal  wound,  and  with  an  extra- 
ordinary effort,  she  opened  her  large  blue  eyes,  and  looking 
steadfastly  up  into  my  haggard  face,  while  a  sweet  lovely 


THE  SPANIARD'S  REVENGE  13 

smile  played  upon  her  countenance,  she  gasped:  'O!  my 
dearest  Parras,  yes,  stay  no  longer  here  with  me,  leave  me 
to  my  fate,  but  fly  from  the  convent  with  the  happy  thought 
in  your  memory,  that  you  are  forgiven,  and  that  I  not  only 
am  confident  of  your  sincerity,  but  that  I  thank  you  for  so 
friendly  a  relief  from  my  embittered  bondage,  fly,  fly!' 

"As  she  said  these  words,  I  felt  her  little  hand  press  upon 
my  arm,  as  if  to  push  me  away,  and  I  saw  her  soft  blue 
eyes  slowly  close  for  the  last  time.  I  placed  my  hand  upon 
her  side,  but  her  heart  had  ceased  to  beat,  her  spirit  had  at 
last  flown  to  realms  of  peace,  there  to  dwell  forever  in  all 
the  effulgence  of  its  meek  gentleness ! 

"  Quickly  and  stealthily  did  I  seize  my  lantern,  and  walk 
down  the  steps  to  the  lower  door,  which  I  found  locked,  but 
fortunately  for  me,  I  had  all  the  false  keys,  and  I  was  not 
long  in  selecting  one  which  would  fit  this  door.  I  opened 
it,  and  found  myself  in  the  long  dreary  hall  which  led  to 
the  outside  door.  It  was  empty  as  before,  but  the  outside 
door  was  also  locked.  I  instantly  recognized  the  key  with 
which  we  had  opened  it  before,  and  plying  it,  I  passed  out, 
and  once  more  found  myself  in  the  open  air. 

"But  Oh!  the  horrors,  of  that  eventful  night  will  haunt 
my  weary  soul  until  the  last  hour  of  my  life !  and  now  as  much 
as  five  years  ago,  when  I  cast  my  thoughts  back  and  see 
again  those  eyelids  close,  shutting  out  forever  from  my 
vision  those  beautiful  blue  orbs  of  heavenly  love,  I  feel  a 
deadly  coldness  stealing  around  my  frame,  and  I  almost 
wish  to  end  my  existence!  But  I  am  wandering  from  my 
story  which  is  now  short. 

"I  from  that  awful  night  sank  back  deeper  and  deeper, 
until  I  was  in  a  perfect  state  of  stagnation.  I  hated  every- 
thing on  this  fair  earth.  What  had  I  now  upon  earth?  For 
nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  had  I  walked  among  the  tombs ! 
All  my  friends  had  proved  my  enemies  save  one,  and  now  I 
was  left  alone  in  the  center!  Bitterly  did  I  hate  all  man- 
kind, and  in  short  I  became  a  most  inveterate  misanthropist. 
I  will  not  detail  my  stay  in  Spain  after  the  tragedy.  May  it 


14  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

be  sufficient  to  say  that  I  prolonged  it  far  enough  to  see 
with  my  own  eyes  the  lurid  flames,  and  hear  with  my  own 
ears  the  death  groans,  which  ascended  up  to  heaven  from  the 
quiet  residence  of  Don  Palibo,  and  also  to  see  twenty-one 
desperate  and  treacherous  villains,  among  whom  were  seven 
whose  reckless  features  shall  ever  be  retained  in  my  most 
bitter  reminiscences,  lie  down  and  take  their  turns  under 
the  merciless  guillotine !  And  when  I  had  seen  this  I  felt 
partially  satisfied ;  yea,  as  near  as  we  may  approach  upon 
this  vague  fading  planet  of  bitterness  to  satisfaction,  it  was 
mine.  I  next  sought  the  home  of  my  childhood,  and  my 
parents.  But  alas!  that  too  was  desolate.  The  terrible 
yellow  fever  had  swept  off  my  parents  in  their  turn !  And 
then  I  was  indeed  alone!  Ah!  whither  might  I  fly  to  escape 
the  torments  and  merciless  world  of  vanity?  Should  I 
once  more  seek  enjoyment  among  the  reckless  and  villain- 
ous gamblers  of  Tabasco?  No!  Oh,  no!  God  forbid!  I 
had  already  seen  too  much  of  such  company. 

"  Might  I  not  again  seek  to  win  the  love  of  some  one  of  the 
fairer  sex,  and  thus  throw  off  the  dreadful  spell,  which  hung 
so  heavily  upon  my  soul?  But  the  awful  thought  of  the 
one  I  had  left  in  the  convent,  together  with  the  doubly 
agonizing  idea  that  I  was  her  murderer,  quickly  repulsed 
every  such  theme  from  my  mind,  and  I  felt  that  for  me 
there  was  but  one  way  left.  And  what  was  that?  To 
abandon  for  ever  the  desolate  and  annoying  world  of  human 
beings!  This  was  my  course  and  for  over  seven  years  have 
I  traversed  this  broad  and  unlimited  prairie  of  America. 
But  it  fails  to  give  the  satisfaction  which  I  have  for  so  many 
years  hoped  sometime  to  enjoy.  It  fails  to  blot  from  my 
vivid  memory  those  awful  and  unpardonable  crimes  which 
have  stained  my  very  soul!  And  now,  gentlemen,  I  have 
told  my  story  for  the  first  time  to  human  ears,  and  may  it 
be  the  last!" 

As  he  said  this  he  grasped  the  old  stone  jug  with  a  trem- 
bling hand,  and  raising  it  to  his  now  pale  and  haggard  face, 
he  poured  an  immense  quantity  down  his  throat,  and  then 


THE  SPANIARD'S  REVENGE  15 

setting  it  deliberately  back  upon  the  buffalo  robe,  he  drew 
his  revolver  from  his  belt,  and  placing  the  muzzle  upon  his 
forehead,  fired  two  charges  of  its  contents  into  his  brains, 
and  fell  back  a  ghastly  corpse! 


March  (?),  1862— SEtat.  2O. 

2.    Rapidity  of  Progress 

History. — I  contributed  this  article  to  the  educa- 
tional column  of  the  Bradford  Argus  of  Towanda, 
Pennsylvania,  at  the  request  of  my  friend  and 
schoolmate,  W.  H.  Thompson,  who  edited  that 
column.  I  had  taught  school  two  winters  in  that 
vicinity,  and  the  views  expressed  were  the  result 
of  my  experience.  The  clipping  found  among  my 
papers  when  I  made  a  collection  of  them  did  not 
show  the  date  of  the  paper.  It  would  probably 
be  difficult  to  obtain  now,  but  it  must  have  been  in 
1 86 1  or  1862.  It  was  probably  in  the  spring  of 
1862. 

The  Bradford  Argus,  Towanda,  Pennsylvania,  1862  (?) 


WHEN   parents   send   their   children   to   common 
school  they  have  pre-eminently  in  their  minds 
the  one  idea,  viz.,  that  they  are  to  make  rapid 
progress  in  their  studies.     They  expect  it,  they  feel  that 
they  have  a  right  to  demand  it.     To  the  teacher,  and  to  the 
teacher  alone  do  they  look  for  the  realization  of  their 
expectations.     If  Charles  does  not  make  rapid  strides  in  his 
Arithmetic,   or  James  does   not   perceptibly  improve  in 
Reading,  or  Johnny  is  deficient  in  Spelling,  or  William,  after 
having  studied  Grammar  for  three  winters,  is  found  to 

16 


RAPIDITY  OF  PROGRESS  17 

know  nothing  about  it,  the  fault  is  immediately  laid  to  the 
teacher  and  on  his  head  the  blame  must  rest. 

It  is  our  purpose  to  consider  briefly  some  of  the  causes 
that  prevent  children,  in  many  cases,  from  making  the 
signal  progress  that  their  fond  parents  often  hope  for,  and 
for  which  the  teacher  is  generally  subjected  to  a  greater  or 
less  degree  of  censure. 

That  teachers  are  often  blamable  and  come  far  short  of 
their  duty  in  many  respects,  as  well  as  commit  many 
errors  in  their  own  judgment,  we  do  not  attempt  to  deny, 
but  that  they  are  obliged  to  bear  much  blame  that  should 
properly  rest  with  the  parents  themselves  or  with  the 
children,  is  a  fact  which  a  little  consideration  renders  so 
palpable,  as  to  be  beyond  all  doubt. 

Want  of  promptness  in  attendance  is  one  of  the  greatest 
banes  of  our  modern  schools.  Many  farmers  have  a  habit 
of  retaining  their  children  at  home  over  the  proper  hour 
every  morning,  to  do  chores.  They  reason  that  an  hour  in 
the  morning  certainly,  cannot  make  much  difference  in 
their  progress,  and  on  that  plea  justify  their  conduct. 
Every  teacher  who  has  ever  had  a  modicum  of  experience 
sees  that  this  does  make  a  great  difference  not  only  with 
each  one's  individual  advancement,  but  with  the  welfare 
and  prosperity  of  the  entire  school.  Strictly  speaking,  Mr. 
Grimes,  who  keeps  his  son  out  every  morning  until  ten 
o'clock,  is  wronging  every  scholar  in  school  who  classes 
with  him. 

He  is  retarding  his  own  son's  improvement,  for  even  if  he 
misses  no  actual  class  he  is  debarred  from  the  privilege  of 
studying  his  morning  lesson,  and  consequently  comes  to 
the  recitation  bench  unprepared,  blunders  over  an  imperfect 
recitation,  and  returns  to  his  seat  knowing  little  or  no  more 
than  if  he  had  kept  it  or  stayed  at  home;  and  thus  every  day 
falling  farther  and  farther  behind,  finds  at  the  end  of  the 
term,  that  he  knows  little  or  no  more  Arithmetic  than  he  did 
at  its  commencement.  He  is  wronging  his  class-mates, 
for  what  is  more  unpleasant  or  injurious  to  a  class,  than  to 


18  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

have  one  of  their  number  continually  dragging  behind?  If 
the  teacher  makes  any  attempt  to  keep  him  along  with  the 
class,  he  is  compelled  to  spend  as  much  time  with  him  alone 
as  with  all  the  rest  of  the  class,  for  he  can  teach  them  all  the 
same  things  as  quick  as  he  can  teach  it  to  one.  This  robs 
the  class  of  half  their  time,  which  in  common  country  schools, 
where  every  boy  has  a  different  reader  and  each  school 
contains  six  different  kinds  of  Geography  and  all  the  Gram- 
mars in  use,  is  a  matter  of  no  small  importance. 

But  the  farmer  urges  that  it  is  necessary  that  his  son  should 
be  retained  at  home  a  certain  length  of  time  each  morning 
to  perform  certain  necessary  duties  of  the  farm.  Doubtless 
these  delinquencies  in  many  cases  might  be  remedied  by 
adopting  a  plan  of  early  rising,  but  assuming  that  they  could 
not,  is  the  farmer  justifiable  in  thus  sending  him  late  every 
morning  to  the  injury  of  himself  and  the  annoyance  of  the 
whole  school?  Would  not  he  be  the  better  reasoner,  who 
should  say,  that  if  his  son's  education  was  anything,  it 
was  worth  making  an  effort  and  some  sacrifice  for,  and  that 
if  he  went  to  school  at  all  he  should  go  thoroughly  domestic 
duties  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding? 

Irregularity  in  attendance  is  another  barrier  to  progress 
in  common  schools,  equally  if  not  more  injurious  than  that 
of  tardiness.  Parents  seem  to  calculate  that  their  children 
ought  to  make  just  as  rapid  improvement  when  they  take 
them  out  now  and  then  a  day,  or  occasionally  a  forenoon 
or  an  afternoon,  as  if  they  attended  regularly.  If  any 
allowance  is  made  it  is  only  for  actual  time  lost.  They 
think  that  at  least  their  improvement  ought  to  be  in  pro- 
portion to  their  attendance. 

In  other  words  they  suppose  that  the  child's  proficiency 
is  retarded  by  keeping  out  of  school,  only  in  proportion  to 
the  number  of  days  that  he  is  kept  out.  "What  is  one  day 
now  and  then,"  they  reason,  "to  a  boy  going  to  school?" 
They  entirely  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  a  school  is  an  or- 
ganization founded  upon  system,  and  that  by  thus  keeping 
their  children  at  home,  they  are  so  far  virtually  disorganiz- 


RAPIDITY  OF  PROGRESS  19 

ing  its  machinery.  The  prosperity  of  a  school  depends 
upon  its  classes.  Each  member  of  a  class  is  a  regulator  of 
its  progress.  If  one  member  of  a  class  is  kept  out  a  day, 
the  class  naturally  moves  on  without  him,  but  when  he 
returns  he  finds  his  class  some  distance  in  advance  of  him, 
and  then  it  is  that  he  begins  to  pull  back ;  and  most  seriously 
does  the  class  feel  this  influence.  All  the  inconveniences 
cited  in  the  case  of  tardiness  are  the  consequences,  and  how 
obvious  it  is  therefore,  that  these  practices,  pursued  to  any 
great  extent,  must  so  materially  affect  the  prosperity  of  a 
school  that  their  evil  consequences  will  be  perceptible  in 
the  progress  of  each  individual  scholar.  There  are  many 
other  evils  practised  by  parents  that  do  not  seem  to  be 
taken  into  consideration  by  them,  but  which  greatly  affect 
the  advancement  of  their  children  in  procuring  knowledge, 
which  go  in  the  common  category  to  be  heaped  upon  the 
teacher,  and  which  every  intelligent  parent  might  see,  if  he 
would  give  the  subject  a  tithe  of  the  consideration  due  to  its 
vast  importance,  both  in  relation  to  him  particularly  and  to 
the  world  in  general.  But  this  article  is  assuming  some 
length  and  we  forbear  to  enlarge  further.  The  point  we  wish 
most  especially  to  hold  forth,  is  the  utter  unreasonableness 
of  placing  the  whole  blame  because  children  do  not  learn 
faster,  upon  the  shoulders  of  the  teachers,  when  in  fact, 
in  a  majority  of  cases,  three  fourths  of  it  lies  at  the  threshold 
of  their  own  homes.  We  would  not  be  understood  to  be 
attempting  to  palliate  the  remissness  of  negligent  or  in- 
competent teachers.  As  great  a  reform  might  perhaps  be 
effected  among  teachers  as  among  parents,  but  if  those 
parents  who  fancy  that  their  children  are  not  learning  fast 
enough,  would  take  the  trouble  to  look  over  the  monthly 
reports  of  their  several  district  schools  and  enumerate  the 
marks  of  tardiness  and  absence,  placed,  by  virtual  consent, 
opposite  their  name,  we  have  the  confidence  in  their  good 
sense,  to  unhesitatingly  predict  that  they  would  turn  their 
vituperations  of  the  teachers,  into  the  wholesome  resolution 
on  their  part,  to  give  henceforth  a  more  earnest  patronage 


20  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

to  common  schools,  both  for  the  good  of  their  own  children, 
and  out  of  respect  for  their  neighbors'. 

In  short  the  matter  of  education  is  one  of  importance, 
and  well  worthy  the  attention  of  all.  That  your  son  may 
become  learned  or  your  daughter  accomplished,  is  or  should 
be  a  great  desideratum. 

Now,  people  who  take  no  interest  in  the  intellectual 
development  of  the  rising  generation,  certainly  have  no 
business  to  complain ;  but  those  who  do,  if  they  really  wish 
their  children  to  improve  and  become  men  and  women 
worthy  of  the  name,  they  must  send  them  to  school;  not 
nominally  merely,  but  thoroughly;  they  must  send  them 
while  they  do  send  them,  every  day  and  in  season;  they 
must  prepare  them  with  books  suitable  to  their  capacity 
and  those  which  are  in  use ;  they  must  train  them  to  respect 
their  teacher  and  the  rules  of  the  school ;  they  must  encour- 
age in  them  at  home  an  interest  in  their  studies;  and  if, 
after  all  this  is  done,  they  make  no  progress,  it  is  time  to 
inculpate  their  teachers.  Let  the  people  awake  to  the  fact 
that  nothing  can  be  accomplished  without  individual 
efforts  and  personal  sacrifices. 


October  (?),  1862— JEtat.  21. 

3.    [  Letter  to  Mr.  W.  H.  Thompson] 

History.  — This  letter  sufficiently  explains  itself. 
There  is  evidence  that  it  was  written  at  several 
sittings  when  long  enough  in  camp  to  permit  of 
my  writing,  and  that  it  was  mai'ed  on  the  day  of 
its  date.  The  clipping  found  showed  that  it 
appeared  in  the  Bradford  Argus  of  Towanda, 
Pennsylvania,  Vol.  XI,  No.  26,  but  did  not  show 
the  date.  It  was  probably  in  October  or  Novem- 
ber, 1862. 

The  Bradford  Argus,  Towanda,  Pennsylvania,  Vol.  XI.,  No.  26, 1862 


CAMP  IN  A  FIELD  ABOUT  A  MILE  BACK  FROM 
WHITE'S  FORD,  MONTGOMERY  Co.,  MD., 
October  17,  1862. 

DEAR  SIR:  It  has  been  so  long  since  I  received  your 
prompt  response  to  my  letter,  that  no  apology  would  be  of 
any  use.  In  fact,  I  fail  utterly  to  justify  myself,  much  less 
can  I  expect  to  be  justified  by  you.  However,  repentance 
coupled  with  the  promise  of  reform,  is  sometimes  almost 
equivalent  to  the  non-commission  of  the  sin,  and  in  view 
of  this  fact  alone,  I  even  now  hope  to  be  forgiven. 

21 


22  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

You  are  no  doubt  amply  posted  on  matters  concerning 
the  I4ist  Reg.  P.  V.,  at  least  up  to  the  time  of  its  removal 
from  Camp  Prescott  Smith,  by  communications  from  your 
worthy  "adopted"  and  others.  You  are  also  no  doubt 
informed  of  his  ill  health,  which  is  very  unfortunate  as  it 
prevented  him  from  accompanying  the  regiment  in  its 
recent  movements.  All  the  more  unfortunate  is  it  that  he 
could  not  be  with  us,  because  in  that  case  the  people  of  our 
county  might  have  safely  relied,  as  in  the  case  of  ou/  first 
tedious  march,  upon  the  gratifying  privilege  of  reading 
a  correct  and  detailed  account  of  it  at  each  of  their  firesides 
from  an  actual  participator.  Circumstances  being  as  they 
are,  I  will  endeavor  not  to  weary  you  with  such  an  imperfect 
account  as  the  case  will  permit. 

The  boys  had  been  for  a  long  time  really  in  the  luxury 
of  camp  life,  in  good  weather,  and  not  a  few  murmurs  of 
dissatisfaction  were  beginning  to  be  audible  among  them 
at  the  idea  of  our  entire  forces  lying  apparently  idle  and 
such  a  large  proportion  occupied  in  apparently  useless 
"fatigue  duty, "  around  the  fortifications  of  Washington, 
while  the  condition  of  the  roads  and  the  weather,  was  so 
favorable  to  military  operations.  At  length  observing 
individuals  began  to  perceive  indications  of  a  change  at 
some  no  very  remote  period.  The  grand  review  by  General 
Heintzelman,  of  several  brigades,  including  ours,  at  Bailey's 
Cross-Roads,  on  the  ist  of  Oct.,  and  an  order  on  Dress 
Parade  the  day  after,  warning  all  field  officers  to  be  ready 
to  take  the  field  and  have  two  days  rations  prepared  for 
their  respective  divisions,  were  quite  significant;  nor  did 
they  fail  to  be  observed  and  speculated  upon  by  the  privates 
of  our  regiment.  At  length  the  time  appeared  to  have 
come.  Friday  evening,  October  loth,  when  we  returned 
from  Battalion  Drill,  the  camp  was  full  of  vague  and  flying 
rumors  of  a  speedy  march.  Ten  thousand  silly  questions 
received  as  many  silly  answers,  and  all  was  doubt  and  un- 
certainty. Only  one  idea  seemed  at  all  established,  that 
was  that  we  were  soon  to  bid  farewell  to  Camp  Prescott 


LETTER  TO  MR.  W.  H.  THOMPSON  23 

Smith,  probably  forever.  One  supposed  we  should  go  to 
Washington,  and  take  boats  for  Fortress  Monroe,  thence 
to  Richmond.  Another  reckoned  we  should  proceed  to 
Harper's  Ferry,  and  still  another  heard  some  one  say  that 
he  was  told  that  some  officer  said  we  were  under  march- 
ing orders  for  Poolesville,  which  finally  we  ascertained  to 
be  the  fact.  Business,  bustle,  and  confusion  seemed  to  be 
the  order  of  the  evening.  Men  were  detailed  from  the 
different  companies  to  bring  provisions  from  the  Brigade 
Commissary  Store  to  the  Quartermaster's  Department  of 
the  Regiment,  to  be  distributed  among  the  companies. 
Orders  came  for  every  man  to  provide  himself  with  two 
days'  rations  in  his  haversack;  then  another  order  to  pack 
knapsacks  and  strike  tents.  Our  tents  down  fairly,  and 
it  began  to  rain,  the  first  for  several  weeks.  Some  com- 
plaints went  up,  and  some  tents  too.  Indeed  those  who 
repitched  their  tents  were  the  fortunate  ones,  for  we  did  not 
start  until  about  four  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  nth, 
and  considerable  rain  had  fallen  during  the  night,  which 
however,  proved  more  an  advantage  than  a  barrier,  it 
having  nicely  laid  the  dust  and  moistened  the  ground.  In 
the  morning  the  weather  was  lowering,  and  bid  fair  to  be 
cool  and  favorable  to  marching. 

At  five  o'clock  the  whole  brigade  was  under  motion, 
headed  towards  Washington,  going  few  knew  whither,  but 
evidently  some  distance. 

The  hospitals  had  attracted  a  large  percentage  of  our 
men,  and  I  feel  confident  in  saying  that  the  companies 
of  the  14  ist  would  not  average  over  fifty  men  each,  com- 
petent to  endure  the  march  upon  which  we  had  set  out,  for 
lugging  knapsack,  box,  and  gun,  two  days'  rations  and  a 
canteen  of  water,  is  in  English,  carrying  about  75  pounds 
on  a  man's  shoulders.  A  thousand  speculations  were  of 
course  still  afloat  as  to  our  destiny;  but  when  we  turned  up 
the  identical  road  we  had  so  wearily  plodded  but  little  over 
a  month  previous,  on  our  memorable  Chain  Bridge  pil- 
grimage, a  miscellaneous  murmuring  of  mingled  complaints, 


24  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

lamentations,  and  invectives,  became  immediately  audible. 
"Wonder  if  the  fools  are  going  to  take  us  to  Chain  Bridge 
again  by  this  roundabout  road,"  and  a  thousand  kindred 
expressions,  were  freely  indulged  in.  All  apprehensions 
of  this  character,  however,  were  dispelled  when  we  took  our 
course  to  the  right  and  crossed  the  Potomac  on  the  Aque- 
duct Bridge  at  Georgetown,  and  passing  through  the  town, 
took  off  in  a  northwesterly  course  through  the  region 
recently  christened,  "My  Maryland."  The  weather  was 
cool  and  damp,  but  the  knapsacks  would  occasionally  get 
heavy,  and  once  in  about  two  hours  we  were  granted  the 
indulgence  of  a  few  minutes  of  rest.  But  before  noon  it 
became  evident  that  the  march  was  "too  much"  for  the 
men  of  our  regiment  at  least,  of  which  fact,  the  frequent 
applications  to  the  commanders  of  the  companies  by  weary 
soldiers  for  licenses  to  leave  the  ranks  (fall  out),  were 
sufficient  proofs.  On  we  plodded.  Some  of  the  hardiest 
would  occasionally  make  the  circuit  of  an  orchard  for  apples, 
and  then  work  the  harder  to  overtake  their  companies. 
Every  spring  on  the  roadside  gathered  a  crowd  of  thirsty 
soldiers,  and  some  few  individuals  of  the  bovine  race  who 
had  ventured  to  graze  too  near  the  highway,  could  boast  of 
at  least  a  temporary  milkmaid  with  white  fingers.  It  was 
about  half-after  four  o'clock  when  we  reached  a  town  called 
Rockville,  a  distance  of  some  17  or  18  miles  from  George- 
town, and  about  22  miles  from  Camp  Prescott  Smith. 
Here  we  turned  out  to  the  left  into  a  large  fair  ground  and 
spent  the  night.  Meager  as  were  the  conveniences,  in  a 
few  minutes  after  we  had  prepared  and  swallowed  our 
suppers  and  stretched  our  weary  bodies  out  upon  our 
blankets  for  the  night,  a  very  large  majority  of  us  were 
safely  folded  in  the  arms  of  Morpheus,  and  revelling  in  the 
comparative  luxuries  of  home  and  congenial  society.  But 
such  indulgences  are  brief  and  transient  to  the  soldier,  and 
at  three  o'clock  next  morning  our  temporary  felicity  was 
substituted  for  by  rather  peremptory  orders  to  "fall  in  and 
march  on  as  before. "  We  marched  rather  slowly  till  about 


LETTER  TO  MR.  W.  H.  THOMPSON          25 

daylight  with  occasional  rests,  but  we  soon  began  to  gain 
motion,  and  march  longer  at  a  time,  and  again  the  men 
began  to  apply  for  passes  to  fall  out.  Long  before  noon  it 
became  evident  that  we  were  under  a  forced  march.  We 
were  marching  very  rapidly  and  scarcely  allowed  to  rest  at 
all.  A  general  complaint  arose,  which  was  by  no  means 
confined  to  privates — Lieutenants  and  Captains  caught  the 
contagion,  and  I  overheard  the  Colonel  (Madill),  himself, 
saying  that  he  regarded  it  as  cruel  to  march  the  soldiers  so 
hard.  He  said  that  we  ought  at  least  to  be  allowed  15 
minutes  rest  every  hour;  and  gave  it  as  his  opinion,  that  he 
could  thus  make  a  long  march  quicker  on  the  whole.  Thou- 
sands of  voices  united  in  showering  down  imprecations 
upon  the  devoted  head  of  Brig.-General  Robinson,  whose 
reputation,  by  the  way,  was  never  before  very  high  among 
those  under  his  command.  We  made  no  stop  for  dinner, 
but  pushed  on.  Many  poor  fellows  plodded  along  till 
weary  nature  was  exhausted.  Hundreds  could  not  keep 
pace,  and  thus,  unconsciously  fell  behind  their  companies; 
so  that  before  noon,  the  companies  of  our  regiment,  were 
completely  mixed  up.  Many  became  exhausted  while 
straggling  along  in  the  rear  of  the  regiment  when  their 
Captains  were  perhaps  far  in  advance.  To  overtake  their 
Captains,  would  be  simply  impossible,  and  rest  they  must. 
To  fall  out  was  only  to  be  overtaken  by  the  rear  guard,  and 
according  to  General  Halleck's  recent  orders,  to  be  regarded 
as  stragglers  and  treated  as  deserters.  I  know  there  must 
have  been  many  such,  and  I  venture  to  say  that  rigid  as 
military  orders  are,  they  were  violated  in  many  cases.  The 
first  regiment  of  the  Brigade  reached  Poolesville  about  two 
o'clock,  but  the  last  of  the  stragglers,  (among  whom  may 
be  ranked  your  humble  servant)  did  not  arrive  before  five. 
As  fast  as  they  arrived,  the  men  of  our  regiment  were 
stationed  on  picket  about  three  miles  west  of  Poolesville. 
It  seems  that  a  body  of  rebel  cavalry  had  been  making 
considerable  of  a  demonstration,  in  the  way  of  stealing 
horses,  and  when  we  arrived  they  had  just  made  their  escape 


c6  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

across  the  river  at  Edward's  Ferry,  with  all  their  spoils. 
Some  say  we  were  only  two  hours  too  late  to  capture  the 
entire  force. 

When  we  arrived  we  were  in  a  poor  condition  to  capture 
rebs.  I  could  have  neither  run  nor  fought.  All  I  could  do, 
I  did,  viz.,  to  stand  sentinel  a  third  of  the  night.  Fifteen 
of  the  poor  fellows,  however,  were  detailed  from  our  com- 
pany to  hasten  to  Edward's  Ferry  in  the  rain;  they  did  not 
return  until  about  midnight,  had  no  supper,  and  if  my  heart 
is  sensitive  to  pity,  I  believe,  I  pitied  these  poor,  weary, 
hungry  pilgrims.  Our  march  was  over.  Possibly  three 
years  experience  in  the  military  service  of  Uncle  Sam  will, 
among  the  many  greater  hardships  recorded  in  their  history 
obliterate  from  our  memories,  the  history  of  that  march, 
but  if  so,  all  the  more  necessity  for  recording  it  here. 

But  while  I  am  engaged  drawing  imaginary  dark  pictures, 
I  will  briefly  take  you  through  a  second  drama. 

It  was  Sunday  night  when  we  arrived  at  Poolesville,  and 
we  that  night  drew  a  single  ration  for  supper.  There  was 
considerable  foraging  done  on  Monday,  to  which  the  Colonel 
was  obliged  to  call  attention,  by  a  long  lecture  to  us  all, 
declaring  that  it  must  be  stopped  immediately.  Monday 
we  got  no  rations,  for  the  trains  did  not  yet  get  along,  but 
we  got  at  least  a  little  rest.  Tuesday  morning  we  were 
again  summoned  to  march  at  about  four  o'clock.  On  went 
our  knapsacks,  but  we  had  orders  to  pile  them  up  and  go  on 
without.  We  had  done  without  rations  for  thirty-six 
hours  already,  and  we,  of  course,  hoped  to  get  some  break- 
fast before  we  marched  far;  but  we  hoped  in  vain.  We 
marched  towards  Edward's  Ferry,  a  distance  of  about  five 
miles.  A  canal  stretches  along  on  this  side  of  the  river, 
which  we  crossed  by  going  under  an  aqueduct  and  through 
a  respectable  mud-hole.  This  march  consumed  the  entire 
forenoon,  as  each  man  was  allowed  to  divest  himself  of  his 
shoes  and  socks  and  wade.  The  brigade  across,  we  took 
the  path,  and  proceeded  up  stream  as  far  as  the  mouth  of 
Monocacy  Creek,  a  distance  of  about  eight  miles,  stationing 


LETTER  TO  MR.  W.  H.  THOMPSON          27 

portions  of  the  brigade  along  the  canal  as  pickets.  When 
we  reached  this  place,  our  regiment  was  alone,  but  instead  of 
going  farther  up,  we  were  somewhat  inscrutibly  'bout  faced, 
and  marched  down  the  canal  about  three  miles  and  there 
stationed  by  companies  of  pickets.  By  this  time  it  was 
nearly  night,  and  it  would  not  be  difficult  to  imagine  that 
some  of  us  were  experiencing  some  inconvenience  for  the 
want  of  something  to  eat.  We  were  told  that  the  provision 
wagons  were  mired  in  the  above  mud-hole,  some  five  or 
six  miles  below.  Speaking  candidly  and  personally,  I 
confess  that  I  was  decidedly  hungry,  but  we  were  doomed 
to  spend  another  night  without  rations.  I  was  the  third 
time  in  succession  detailed  to  stand  as  sentinel.  Night 
came,  and  the  boys  all  lay  down,  except  the  pickets,  and 
slept  and  dreamt  of  smoking  biscuits  and  inviting  tables  of 
all  that  is  good. 

Morning  came,  and  in  the  face  of  positive  orders,  sundry 
quadrupeds  and  divers  fowls  were  sacrificed  without  tra- 
ditional ceremony,  "and  many  other  such  like  things"  did 
we.  Few  were  enabled  to  procure  anything  to  eat.  At  last, 
the  rations  came  at  about  ten  o'clock.  It  was  Wednesday 
morning,  and  we  had  nothing  to  eat  since  Sunday  night. 
Over  sixty  hours. 

It  is  quite  easy  to  suppose  that  there  was  some  rather 
tall  eating  done  that  morning.  We  had  no  reason  to 
complain  of  the  quality  of  our  rations.  "Hard-tack  and 
red  horse,"  was  devoured  as  greedily  as  would  have  been 
the  most  costly  luxury  of  our  tables  at  home.  Break- 
fast was  over  and  our  hardships  were  at  an  end. 
None,  perhaps,  the  worse  off  for  their  unsanctified  feast. 
That  night  we  shifted  our  quarters  to  this  place,  where 
we  have  been  ever  since,  expecting  hourly  to  receive  or- 
ders to  march.  You  will,  by  the  time  you  get  this,  be  far 
better  informed  of  the  position  of  the  rebels  and  the  reasons 
for  our  various  movements,  than  I  am  at  present  able  to 
furnish. 

Heavy  cannonading  was  heard  from  here  in  the  direction 


28  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

of  Harper's  Ferry,  indicating  a  sharp  engagement.  I  had 
little  idea  of  writing  as  long  a  letter  as  I  have  when  I 
began. 

I  am  happy  to  subscribe  myself,  your  grateful  friend. 


May  (?),  1863  JEtat.  21. 

4.    [Letter  to  Mr.  W.  H.  Thompson] 

History. — This  letter  was  written  on  May  18, 
19,  and  20,  1863,  and  inserted  in  the  Bradford 
Argus  very  soon  after  it  was  received  by  Mr. 
Thompson.  The  clipping  preserved  does  not 
show  the  date.  In  1881,  this  letter  was  laid  before 
the  Board  of  Pension  Examiners,  and  formed  their 
principal  basis  for  granting  me  an  increase  of 
pension. 

The  Bradford  Argus,  Towanda,  Pennsylvania,  May  (?),  1863 


LETTER  FROM  THE  141  ST  REG.  P.  V.  HOSPITAL  OF  THE 
THIRD  CORPS,  NEAR  POTOMAC  CREEK,  ARMY  OF  THE 
POTOMAC,  May  18, 1863. 

MOST  WORTHY  FRIEND:  Upon  the  bed  of  a  wounded 
soldier  might  your  humble  servant  be  found  this  fine 
morning,  endeavoring,  from  a  horizontal  position,  to  write 
a  few  lines  to  you,  designed  to  embrace  a  desultory  synopsis 
of  the  great  drama,  as  far  as  could  be  surveyed  from  the 
ranks  of  an  obscure  Regiment  like  our  gallant  I4ist. 

You,  of  course,  have  anxiously  watched  the  tidings  as 
they  came  flying  over  the  wires,  and  carefully  perused  the 
more  settled  details  of  those  who  style  themselves,  "our 

29 


30  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

specials."  You  have,  doubtless,  watched  the  $d  Corps, 
headed  by  General  Sickles,  throughout  the  terrible  cam- 
paign— its  feint  down  the  Rappahannock,  where  it  lay  a 
couple  of  days,  while  the  ist,  under  Reynolds,  and  the  6th, 
under  Sedgwick,  laid  the  pontoon  bridges,  and  effected  a 
crossing — its  long  forced  march  of  Thursday  afternoon  till 
midnight,  which  was  resumed  early  Friday  morning,  when 
we  crossed  the  river  at  what  is  known  as  United  States  Ford, 
and  penetrated  Dixie  Proper,  to  the  now  noted  town  of 
Chancellorsville ;  how  on  Saturday  afternoon  we  penetrated 
the  rebel  lines  for  two  miles  on  a  double  quick,  and  seized 
the  Spottsylvania  Court  House  road,  by  which  the  enemy 
was  endeavoring  to  gain  our  right  flank,  and  how  after  the 
terribly  disastrous  flight  of  the  nth  Corps,  on  our  right, 
we  returned,  as  quick  as  we  went,  to  the  region  of  our  for- 
tifications ;  how,  in  so  doing,  we  were  called  to  take  the  place 
of  the  scattered  and  demoralized  nth,  and  form  into  a  line 
to  defend  our  rear,  which  had  been  thus  exposed  to  Jack- 
son's savage  hordes;  how  three  times  it  resisted,  like  an 
adamantine  butment,  the  awful  and  desperate  assaults  of 
the  foe,  by  the  bright  moonlight  of  Saturday  night,  and  how 
on  Sunday  morning,  the  great  day  of  the  battle,  we  charged 
the  enemy  and  held  him  in  check,  till  nearly  half  our  noble 
braves  had  been  chosen  the  victims  of  the  enemy's  deadly 
missies,  till  completely  overwhelmed  by  superior  numbers, 
we  were  compelled  to  fall  back  behind  the  new  lines  of  work 
which  our  gallant  JOE  had  skilfully  prepared  to  protect 
the  army,  and  insure  the  line  of  retreat,  if  such  should 
become  a  necessity.  We,  did  I  say?  I  mean  those  of  us 
who  had  through  good  fortune,  come  out  of  the  "fiery  ordeal" 
intact.  Early  Sunday  morning,  our  Regiment,  which 
had  been  doing  picket  duty  during  the  night,  and  had 
thus  escaped  the  desperate  moonlight  attack  of  the  foe, 
rejoined  the  rest  of  the  Corps,  which  occupied  an  eminence 
considerably  exposed  to  the  enemy's  fire,  should  they 
advance  from  the  wood,  which  they  did  soon  after  we  came 
up.  The  bullets  began  to  whizz  around  among  us  pretty 


LETTER  TO  MR.  W.  H.  THOMPSON          31 

freely.  We  were  ordered  to  cover,  that  is,  lie  down,  but 
we  had  not  lain  long  before  our  position  being  deemed  too 
much  exposed,  we  were  ordered  up,  and  began  to  move 
over  the  crest;  but  some  of  the  boys  were  in  too  great  a 
hurry,  and  the  falling  back  behind  our  batteries  was  at- 
tended with  some  loss  and  considerable  confusion.  Before 
we  had  fallen  back  far  enough  to  get  out  of  the  range 
of  the  bullets,  one  came  and  wounded  our  Captain 
(Spaulding). 

When  we  came  in  rear  of  our  batteries,  our  regiment  had 
become  restored  to  perfect  order.  We  had  a  line  in  the 
piece  of  woods  in  front  of  our  breastworks,  which  was  fight- 
ing desperately,  and  by  this  time  must  have  been  greatly 
exhausted.  Our  Brigade  marched  around  to  the  left  of  the 
batteries,  and  advanced,  amid  a  shower  of  shot  and  shell 
across  the  meadow  to  their  relief.  This  advance  was  made 
in  splendid  style,  and  the  advance  line  having  dexterously 
slipped  through  our  ranks,  we  opened  furiously  upon  the  foe. 
From  the  point  where  I  was  it  was  impossible  for  me  to  see 
a  single  gray  back  through  the  thick  wood.  Fearing  that  I 
should  waste  all  the  ammunition  I  fired  away  under  such 
circumstances,  I  rather  reserved  my  fire  impatiently 
awaiting  for  an  order  to  advance,  I  was  not  doomed  to  wait 
long,  for  soon  the  cry  of  forward  ran  along  the  line,  amid  the 
terrible  roar  of  battle.  This  advance  was  gallantly  made, 
and  accompanied  by  vociferous  cheering.  We  soon  came 
in  full  view  of  the  enemy,  who  were  flying  in  confusion,  but 
having  another  line  immediately  behind  them,  they  again 
advanced,  pouring  a  terrible  volley  of  bullets  into  our  ranks, 
while  we  were  returning  the  compliment  with  so  much  effect 
that  they  strewed  the  ground  with  the  slain  as  they  moved 
along.  Directly  in  front  of  me,  they  were  crowding  through 
a  gap  in  an  old  fence,  and  into  this  dense  mass  of  gray  backed 
humanity  (?)  I  poured  round  after  round.  I  was  chuckling 
over  this  grand  opportunity  offered  me  for  thinning  out  the 
enemies  of  human  liberty,  when  a  silent  messenger  came  and 
entering  the  upper  part  of  my  right  knee,  glanced  on  the 


32  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

bone,  and  making  its  egress,  passed  to  the  rear,  bringing 
me  to  the  ground.  At  the  same  moment,  Captain  Swart, 
of  Company  C,  who  was  at  the  time  holding  the  colors,  was 
shot  dead,  and  the  "ample  folds"  of  the  glorious  old  flag 
fell  gracefully  over  me,  completely  enshrouding  me.  Not- 
withstanding the  danger  I  was  in,  and  the  excitement  of  the 
occasion,  I  could  not  help  reflecting  upon  my  poetic 
position.  But  no  time  was  to  be  lost,  and  having  partially 
recovered  from  the  shock  occasioned  by  the  bullet  hole 
through  my  knee,  I  set  about  to  ascertain  what  powers  of 
locomotion  I  still  possessed,  and  found  to  my  satisfaction 
that  I  was  far  less  helpless  than  I  had  supposed.  I  crawled 
out  from  under  the  "Red,  White,  and  Blue, "  and  rising  to 
my  feet  discovered  that  I  was  able  to  walk.  Not  knowing 
how  small  or  great  the  wound  might  be,  and  thinking, 
perhaps,  it  was  not  of  much  account,  and  not  wishing  to 
abandon  a  good  job  for  a  mere  "pin  scratch,"  I  picked  up 
my  gun  and  again  "went  in."  All  this  you  will  bear  in 
mind,  was  enacted  far  quicker  than  I  can  write  or  you  can 
read  it,  and  I  looked  for  a  profitable  place  to  point  my 
musket,  I  perceived  that  they  still  thronged  the  gap,  each 
striving  to  get  through  first.  I  took  care  to  aim  into  the 
thickest  mass  of  heads,  where  every  bullet  must  have  sum- 
moned one  or  more  to  the  High  Tribunal,  where  they  would 
be  called  upon  to  settle  their  entire  accounts — where  Sambo's 
claims  for  children  sold,  wife  banished,  wages  unpaid, 
etc.,  etc.,  will  be  sure  to  be  filed  in — and  as  Confederate 
scrip  is  very  much  depreciated,  and  in  fact  worthless  except 
in  Dixie,  I  was  chuckling  over  the  idea  that  very  few  would 
be  able  to  "bail  out, "  and  consequently  would  have  to  suffer 
the  extreme  penalty  of  the  law,  and  perhaps  take  their 
turn  at  the  auction  block  or  the  whipping  post,  when  a 
couple  more  of  their  friendly  peacemakers  came  whizzing 
along  in  quick  succession,  making  a  pair  of  holes  through 
me,  in  a  workmanlike  manner.  The  first,  after  it  had 
entered  my  left  pant's  pocket  and  demolished  a  small 
wooden  screw  inkstand,  which  I  had  carried  there  for 


LETTER  TO  MR.  W.  H.  THOMPSON          33 

three  quarters  of  a  year,  passed  through  the  thick  muscle 
of  my  thigh,  just  missing  the  bone.  The  next  one  paid  a 
similar  tribute  to  the  other  thigh.  I  took  the  hint,  and 
started  for  the  rear,  taking  with  me  my  gun,  knapsack,  and 
everything  I  had,  being  determined  that  the  enemy  should 
not  get  my  arms  and  accoutrements,  unless  they  got  me. 
I  could  scarcely  navigate,  but  managed  to  gain  a  wretched 
old  log  tenement,  behind  our  batteries,  where  I  remained 
throughout  the  awful  storm  of  battle  that  raged  with  un- 
restrained fury  till  between  10  and  1 1  o'clock. 

Thus  for  three  hours,  I  was  on  contested  ground,  exposed 
to  the  rage  of  the  howling  missies  of  death.  Many  other 
poor  wounded  men  had  dragged  themselves  to  the  same 
place,  and  the  first  floor  was  soon  covered  with  sufferers. 
As  the  enemy  advanced,  the  roar  of  battle  became  almost 
deafening.  Pieces  of  shell,  grape,  canister,  and  occasionally 
a  cannon  ball,  came  rattling  about  the  dilapidated  old 
building,  entering  the  open  doors  and  windows,  and  threat- 
ening us  all  with  death.  A  young  man  was  standing  by 
me  as  I  lay  upon  the  dirty  floor.  A  crash,  a  rattle  against 
the  logs,  and  I  felt  a  slight  pressure  against  my  left  shoulder; 
I  looked  up,  and  to  my  horror  saw  the  young  man  slowly 
settling  down  beside  me  to  rise  no  more !  A  gory  stream  of 
mingled  blood  and  brains  was  gushing  out  of  his  right  eye, 
which  plainly  told  the  tale  of  horror.  A  moment  and  he 
was  a  corpse.  I  could  enumerate  a  ghastly  category  of 
similar  cases  that  passed  within  the  range  of  my  observation, 
but  my  letter  is  already  assuming  an  unwarranted  prolixity. 
Suffice  it  to  say,  that  I  did  not  remove  from  that  modern 
Golgotha  till  I  was  borne  away  in  an  ambulance,  eleven  days 
after  the  battle,  and  conveyed  hither. 

Our  sojourn  among  the  "chivalry,"  though  a  period  of 
unutterable  loneliness,  was  nevertheless  marked  by  many 
little  incidents  of  particular  interest.  Our  opportunities 
for  learning  the  general  sentiments  of  the  rebel  soldiery  and 
the  rebel  officers,  and  Confederate  opinions  generally  on  the 
great  question  of  the  war  were  excellent.  Allowance  had 


34  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

to  be  made  for  their  temporary  flush  of  victory.  The  old 
log  house  constituted  a  hospital,  in  and  around  which  the 
wounded  were  brought  from  the  field  around,  on  the  three 
days  following  the  battle,  to  the  number  of  280.  Three 
surgeons  (Unionists)  were  with  us,  and  a  scanty  number  of 
attendants,  allowed  us  from  the  prisoners  taken  by  the 
rebels,  constituted  our  only  aid.  For  the  first  three  or 
four  days  we  nearly  starved,  a  pint  of  thin  flour  gruel  per 
day,  being  all  that  could  be  allowed  us.  Fortunately,  my 
"eight  days  rations,"  with  which  I  had  started,  were  not 
yet  entirely  consumed,  but  I  could  not  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  the 
pitiful  cry  of  a  wounded  man  for  bread,  and  these  were  soon 
exhausted.  The  last  two  or  three  days,  however,  of  our 
stay,  the  rebels  furnished  us  with  a  few  of  their  mammoth 
army  crackers  and  some  bacon.  While  their  army  was  in 
the  vicinity,  we  had  plenty  of  visitors  from  almost  every 
State  in  the  Confederacy.  The  subject  was  generally  the 
war.  The  soldiers  were  inclined  to  be  reasonable,  in  most 
cases  declaring  themselves  tired  of  it,  and  hoping  it  would 
soon  close.  Nearly  all  of  them  said  they  were  satisfied 
with  the  old  Union,  and  would  be  yet;  would  be  glad  to 
have  peace  once  more  with  the  Union,  while  a  large  number 
expressed  their  disgust  with  the  cause  of  the  rebellion,  and 
said  they  would  be  glad  to  get  out  of  the  rebel  army  at  any 
sacrifice.  One  fellow  told  me  that  he  had  been  drafted 
into  the  service  two  years  ago;  he  never  had  shot  at  a 
Union  man  yet,  and  never  should;  he  had  two  brothers  in 
Grant's  army,  and  had  been  fishing  for  a  chance  to  desert 
ever  since  he  went  to  the  army.  Another  fellow  said  he 
never  calculated  to  fight  against  the  Union,  and  to  this  end 
he  showed  us  how  the  day  of  the  battle  he  had  taken  the 
trouble  to  shoot  off  one  of  his  fingers  with  his  own  gun.  The 
Confederate  officers  presented  an  entirely  different  front  to 
us.  They  are  generally  well  educated,  and  intensely 
Secesh.  They  affirm  that  the  South  would  fight  as  long 
as  a  man  was  left.  One,  in  particular,  entered  the  room 
where  we  lay  wounded  upon  the  floor,  groaning,  and  many 


LETTER  TO  MR.  W.  H.  THOMPSON          35 

dying,  and  began  a  furious  assault,  seasoned  well  with 
rhetorical  invectives,  upon  us  and  our  cause. 

For  a  moment  he  was  permitted  to  show  off  his  talents 
and  base  principles  unrebuked.  He  was  about  closing  his 
harangue,  supposing,  no  doubt,  that  his  fine  language  and 
profound  logic  (?)  were  poorly  appreciated  among  a  set  of 
hirelings,  when  suddenly  he  was  met  by  a  Yankee  argument, 
in  the  form  of  an  interrogatory  (of  course) ,  that  came  near 
staggering  him.  He  managed  to  stumble  around  it  and 
over  it  as  best  he  could,  but  only  to  entangle  himself  in  a 
tissue  of  network  from  which  he,  with  much  difficulty, 
succeeded  in  extricating  himself,  which  indeed  he  only  did 
by  finding  business  in  another  quarter.  But  he  stayed 
long  enough  to  discover  that  all  the  schoolhouses  in  the 
great  free  North  were  not  built  in  vain,  and  long  enough  to 
learn  what  to  him  was  of  far  more  consequence,  viz.,  that  the 
soldiers  of  the  Union  here,  by  no  means,  are  inclined  to 
sympathize  with  traitors  either  in  arms,  or  at  home;  that 
they,  notwithstanding  the  pain  experienced  from  their 
wounds,  were  sensible  to  the  cowardly  tirade  he  had  seen 
fit  to  belch  forth  against  them,  and  ready  to  manifest  with 
withering  effect  their  virtuous  indignation  against  it.  I  was 
glad  to  see  the  boys  come  out  so  manfully  in  support  of 
great  principles. 

The  Union  army  is  an  invincible  host,  from  the  intelli- 
gence and  patriotic  zeal  of  its  soldiery,  as  well  as  its  officers. 
They  are  all  ready  to  carry  on  the  war  against  treason  and 
rebellion,  without  regard  to  time,  till  they  yield  to  uncon- 
ditional submission. 

But  I  must  bring  this  to  a  close,  leaving  out,  necessarily, 
much  that  I  would  be  happy  to  communicate.  I  am  safe 
at  the  Corps  Hospital,  expecting  to  be  transferred  some- 
where before  many  days.  May  it  be  to  the  land  of  friends 
and  pleasant  associations. 

Yours,  in  truth. 


April  13,  1865— Mtat.  23. 

5.    The  Punishment  of  Traitors 

History. — Probably  written  on  the  day  of  date, 
April  10,  1865,  and  published  in  the  Daily  National 
Republican  the  following  morning.  I  was  a  stal- 
wart in  my  political  sentiments  and  greatly  opposed 
to  any  general  amnesty  at  that  time.  It  fairly 
represents  the  feeling  that  then  existed  in  the  rank 
and  file  of  the  army. 

The  Daily  National  Republican,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  V.,  No.  117, 
April  13,  1865,  first  page 


WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  April  10,  1865. 

Editor  Daily  National  Republican, 

DEAR  SIR  :  In  this  hour  of  universal  exultation  we  cannot 
but  feel  that  there  is  greater  danger  of  sacrifice  of  national 
honor  and  principle  than  there  ever  was  in  the  dark  hours 
of  disaster.  We,  therefore,  most  earnestly  and  anxiously 
urge  you  to  exert  the  powerful  influence  of  your  columns  in 
opposition  to  the  unmanly  and  detestable  utterances  of  the 
Daily  Morning  Chronicle  and  kindred  prints,  which  will 
seek  to  take  advantage  of  the  popular  weakness  at  such  a 
time,  and  foist  upon  the  country  a  shameful  amnesty  to 
avowed  and  red-handed  traitors.  We  recognize  the  entire 

36 


THE  PUNISHMENT  OF  TRAITORS  37 

propriety  and  chivalry  of  General  Grant's  terms,  offered  as  a 
conquering  warrior,  but  we  deny  that  the  people,  much  less 
the  soldiers,  will  be  at  all  satisfied  to  see  this  wronged,  defied, 
insulted,  and  assailed  nation  grant  a  free  pardon  to  those 
ineffable  scoundrels  who  have  grasped  at  its  throat  and 
stabbed  at  its  heart.  Such  a  policy  would  establish  a 
precedent  infinitely  dangerous  and  dishonorable  to  the 
American  name.  If  the  nation's  statesmen  cannot  per- 
ceive this,  its  soldiers  can. 

General  Grant  has  nobly  performed  his  part  in  his  own 
knightly  way  as  the  chieftain  of  a  victorious  army  dealing 
with  a  conquered  belligerent.  Let  the  nation  as  nobly 
perform  its  part  as  a  great  people  dealing  with  those  crime- 
stained  rebels  who  have  so  wantonly  been  slaughtering  the 
flower  of  its  youth.  Are  they  any  more  pardonable  after 
stern  necessity  compels  them  to  submit  than  when  the  tide 
of  success  was  bearing  them  on  in  their  career  of  crime? 
No!  They  are  not  repentant!  Let  the  nation  deal  out 
condign  punishment  to  the  guilty  leaders,  not  in  wrath  nor 
in  vengeance,  but  in  justice,  in  honor,  in  wisdom,  pardoning 
only  the  deluded  victims  of  ignorance  and  slavery. 

Respectfully    yours, 
ONE  WHO  HAS  BLED  TO  PUNISH  TRAITORS. 


December,  1869— Mtat.  28. 

6.     [Circular  of  the  National  Liberal 
Reform  League] 

History. — Growing  out  of  a  Sunday  Lyceum  of 
which  I  had  been  a  member  for  some  time,  there 
sprang  up  in  the  fall  of  1869  in  Washington  a 
strong  desire  to  put  our  liberal  ideas  before  a 
larger  public.  But  most  of  the  members  of  the 
Lyceum  held  public  office  and  were  apprehensive 
that  open  opposition  to  the  church  might  endanger 
their  positions.  It  was  therefore  decided  to  form 
a  secret  society  or  league  for  the  propagation  of  our 
liberal  ideas.  It  fell  to  me  to  draft  a  suitable  cir- 
cular, and  this  I  did  on  November  18,  1869.  I 
possess  the  original  rough  draft  of  it  in  my  hand 
writing.  I  am  not  sure  whether  the  name  of  the 
League  was  suggested  by  me  or  was  the  result  of  a 
general  discussion.  I  was  also  depended  upon  to 
attend  to  the  business  of  having  the  circulars 
printed,  and  I  corresponded  with  Mr.  Mendum, 
editor  of  the  Boston  Investigator,  and  ultimately 
succeeded  in  getting  it  done  in  Boston.  The  circu- 
lars were  received  December  9,  1869,  and  were 
then  distributed  to  liberals  throughout  the  country. 

The  following  is  the  circular: 

38 


CIRCULAR  OF  THE  REFORM  LEAGUE       39 

PRIVATE. 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C., 18— . 

SIR  :  An  enterprise  has  been  set  on  foot  in  the  District 
of  Columbia,  for  the  dissemination  of  Liberal  Ideas,  to 
which  every  friend  of  mental  liberty  is  asked  to  lend  his 
support.  An  organization  has  been  formed,  and  is  now  in 
active  operation,  with  which  it  is  hoped  and  believed  every 
liberal-minded  person  in  the  District  will  unite  himself  as 
soon  as  made  aware  of  its  existence  and  its  character.  Its 
objects  are,  in  the  words  of  its  charter,  "the  dissemination 
of  liberal  sentiment;  the  opposition  to  all  forms  of  supersti- 
tion; the  exposition  of  all  fallacious  moral  and  religious 
doctrines,  and  the  establishment  of  the  principles  of  mental, 
moral,  and  religious  liberty,  as  embodied  in  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  and  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. " 
Its  members  agree  to  leave  one  another  in  the  undisputed 
enjoyment  of  all  other  tenets,  doctrines,  beliefs,  and  isms, 
and  unite  upon  the  cardinal  principles  of  hostility  to  the 
leading  doctrinal  teachings  of  the  so-called  Catholic  and 
Evangelical  Protestant  Churches,  and  of  zeal  for  the 
triumph  of  reason  and  science  over  faith  and  theology;  thus 
enabling  this  otherwise  heterogeneous  host  (for  when  united 
they  are  truly  a  host)  to  unite  in  a  powerful  co-operative 
alliance  for  practical  results.  But  the  crowning  character- 
istic of  this  organization  is  the  entire  indemnity  which  it 
affords  every  member  from  the  proscriptions  of  public 
opinion,  the  ostracism  of  society,  and  all  the  blows  which 
religious  bigotry  never  fails  to  aim  at  the  social,  political, 
and  business  interests  of  the  enemies  of  superstition,  when- 
ever they  can  be  identified.  In  a  word  it  is  a  secret  associa- 
tion, and  every  possible  safeguard  is  thrown  around  its 
proceedings,  and  especially  the  fact  of  every  one's  member- 
ship in  it ;  so  that  while  its  power  is  being  felt  throughout  the 
community,  and  strongest  where  most  needed  and  least 
desired,  no  man  can  point  his  finger  at  a  single  member  and 
say,  "  This  is  one  of  them. " 


40  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

This  organization  is  now  in  full  force  under  the  name 

Of  THE    NATIONAL  LIBERAL  REFORM  LEAGUE.      Ample  pro- 

vision  is  made  for  its  extension  to  other  cities  of  the 
Union,  and  for  making  it,  as  its  name  implies,  a  truly 
National  movement,  in  the  double  sense  of  its  origin  and  its 
extent.  As  to  its  method  of  proceeding  in  carrying  out  its 
objects,  it  may  be  said  to  consist  of  the  old  plan — so  long 
and  effectually  tried  by  the  church  and  by  all  political 
parties — of  the  scattering  broadcast  of  printed  matter  in  its 
various  forms,  as  tracts,  pamphlets,  perodicals,  and  books 
of  sound  and  approved  character,  wherever,  in  the  opinion 
of  the  League,  they  are  most  needed. 

The  organization  is  now  in  possession  of  a  printing  press, 
and  has  already  commenced  the  issue  of  a  paper  as  the 
exponent  of  its  principles.  It  is  enlarging  its  labors  as 
rapidly  as  its  means  will  permit. 

Its  present  demand  is  for  more  members.  The  terms  of 
admission,  for  those  qualified,  are  placed  at  the  lowest 
possibly  figure,  viz.,  an  initiation  fee  of  one  dollar,  and 
quarterly  dues  of  fifty  cents;  hoping  that  by  thus  drawing 
into  its  lists  every  friend  of  Liberalism  in  the  District  of 
Columbia,  this  little  sum  will  be  so  often  multiplied  that, 
with  such  contributions  as  may  be  voluntarily  subscribed 
by  those  who  feel  able,  the  comparatively  moderate  ex- 
penses necessary  to  carry  on  a  truly  great  work  will  be  easily 
defrayed.  An  earnest  appeal  is  therefore  made  to  all  who 
favor  the  objects  above  set  forth,  under  whatever  name 
they  prefer  to  be  styled, — Liberals,  Skeptics,  Infidels, 
Secularists,  Utilitarians,  Socialists,  Positivists,  Spiritualists, 
Deists,  Theists,  Pantheists,  Atheists,  Freethinkers,  all  who 
desire  the  mental  emancipation  of  mankind  from  the 
trammels  of  superstition,  and  the  dominion  of  priestcraft, 
to  unite  in  this  movement  and  join  the  N.  L.  R.  League, 
without  delay.  Your  moral  support,  your  intellectual 
contributions,  as  well  as  your  substantial  offerings,  are 
needed  in  advancing  the  cause  of  true  freedom. 

If  these  considerations  enlist  your  sympathy,  you  are 


CIRCULAR  OF  THE  REFORM  LEAGUE       41 

requested  to  put  yourself  in  immediate  communication,  by 

addressing  LOCK  BOX  NO. ,  WASHINGTON  POST  OFFICE, 

whereby  you  may  obtain  full  particulars  in  regard  to  the 
matter. 

By  order  of  the 

N.  L  .R.  L. 


March,  I87O— JEtat.    28. 

7.    The  Situation 

History. — This  was  my  salutatory  editorial  in 
launching  The  Iconoclast,  and  this  is  the  proper 
place  to  give  an  account  of  that  enterprise.  The 
National  Liberal  Reform  League  proposed  to 
"do  something, "  and  the  thing  it  did  was  to  start 
an  "organ"  for  the  dissemination  of  the  ideas  of 
its  members.  At  a  meeting  of  the  League  on 
January  18,  1870,  this  action  was  decided  upon,  and 
the  name  adopted  for  the  organ  was:  THE  OTHER 
SIDE.  I  did  not  like  that  name,  but  no  better  one 
occurring  to  me,  I  acquiesced.  On  March  8,  1870, 
the  name  Iconoclast  occurred  to  me,  and  I  suggested 
its  adoption,  which  was  unanimously  and  enthu- 
siastically approved  by  the  League.  One  of  the 
members  was  a  printer  and  the  composition  was 
referred  to  him.  Several  members  offered  to 
contribute,  but  there  must  be  an  editor.  This 
charge  fell  to  me.  The  idea  of  publishing  was  not 
new.  It  was  not  an  afterthought.  It  was  in  the 
minds  of  the  members  before  that  of  a  league. 
It  was  the  cause  and  not  the  consequence  of  the 

42 


THE  SITUATION  43 

League.  In  anticipation  of  it  I  had  already,  on 
November  20  and  22,  1869,  drawn  up  a  paper 
embodying  what  I  thought  should  be  said  in  the 
first  number.  This  was  rewritten  on  January  14, 
1870,  further  revised  on  February  loth,  and 
appeared  in  its  present  form  as  the  initial  foreword 
of  the  Iconoclast.  The  first  number  of  the  Icono- 
clast appeared  very  soon  after  its  date,  March  15, 
1870.  It  was  published  monthly  thereafter  for 
eighteen  months.  I  continued  to  edit  it  all  that 
time  and  contributed  much  more  than  half  the 
matter.  This  was  not  all  original,  but  was  gath- 
ered from  all  sources.  Most  of  the  selections  had 
to  be  found  in  libraries  and  laboriously  copied  out 
of  the  volumes  containing  them.  The  League 
received  few  recruits,  while  no  less  than  three  of 
its  most  active  members  died  during  that  time, 
others  lost  their  offices  and  were  compelled  to  leave 
Washington,  and  others  grew  lukewarm  and  lost 
their  interest.  The  burden  grew  heavier  and 
heavier  upon  my  shoulders  and  reached  the  limit 
of  endurance  in  the  summer  of  1871.  But  I  do 
not  think  the  quality  of  the  matter  deteriorated 
and  the  last  number  is  fully  up  to  the  standard  of 
the  first.  The  paper  remained  unchanged  in  form 
and  each  number  consisted  of  a  single  sheet  of 
four  pages,  the  pages  not  numbered.  The  first 
twelve  numbers  are  called  Volume  I.,  and  the 
remaining  six  are  all  there  is  of  Volume  II.  The 
pages  have  each  three  columns. 

The  Iconoclast,  Vol.  I,  No.  i,  Washington,  D.  C.,  March,  1870. 


44  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

IN  this  age  of  rational  and  scientific  progress  it  seems 
eminently  fitting  that  organs  of  mental  and  religious 
liberty  should  be  multiplied  to  keep  pace  with  the 
spirit  of  inquiry.  There  is  a  want  in  the  thinking  world 
which  the  frowns  of  society  and  the  fear  of  public  disappro- 
bation have  thus  far  prevented  from  being  supplied.  It 
will  be  the  aim  of  our  paper,  in  so  far  as  its  influence  ex- 
tends, to  supply  that  want.  We  desire,  however,  to  be 
known,  not  as  mere  fault-finders  and  cavilers,  but  as 
humanitarians. 

If  we  attack  superstition,  it  is  because  we  regard  it  an 
enemy  of  the  human  race.  If  we  assail  the  Church,  it  is 
because  we  are  satisfied  that  its  tendency  is  to  diminish  the 
sum  of  human  happiness.  If  we  criticize  and  expose  its 
doctrines,  it  is  because  we  feel  that  they  are  errors  and  that 
all  errors  entail  misery  upon  the  race. 

We  have  thoroughly  examined  the  teachings,  character, 
and  effects  of  the  great  and  popular  institution  known  as  the 
Orthodox  Church;  we  have  inspected  its  leading  doctrines, 
and  satisfied  ourselves  they  are  only  the  modified  super- 
stitions of  barbarous  ages,  the  natural  offspring  of  man's 
primitive  ignorance.  We  have  studied  the  character  of 
the  institution  and  its  leading  minds,  and  find  in  them 
nothing  superior  in  point  of  wisdom  or  of  merit  to  those 
entirely  secular.  We  have  traced  its  effects  upon  the  world 
and  we  discover  them  to  be  of  the  most  pernicious  char- 
acter. We  therefore  hesitate  not  to  pronounce  it  a  great 
delusion,  a  gigantic  error,  inconsistent  with  all  the  dictates 
of  reason,  and  incompatible  with  all  the  revelations  of 
science,  and  therefore  in  the  highest  degree  destructive, 
alike  of  the  virtue,  the  progress,  and  the  happiness  of 
mankind.  As  such,  and  as  such  only,  we  shall  spare  no 
effort  to  expose  its  fallacies,  demonstrate  its  absurdities, 
explode  its  dogmas,  and  disintegrate  its  constituent 
elements. 

This  is  indeed  a  fitting  time  for  undertaking  such  an 
enterprise.  We  are  to-day,  as  it  were,  on  the  eve  of  a 


THE  SITUATION  45 

religious  crisis.  We  are  near  to  one  of  those  great  culminat- 
ing epochs  which  have  occurred  but  a  few  times  in  the 
recorded  history  of  man.  Whenever  in  the  march  of  human 
civilization  the  rationalistic  element  has  risen  high  enough 
to  encroach  upon  the  superstitious  element  there  has  been  a 
shock,  and  the  latter  power  has  girded  itself  anew  for  the 
subjugation  of  the  former.  The  prisoner  who  has  attempt- 
ed to  escape  is  loaded  with  a  heavier  chain.  The  mind, 
guided  by  the  lamp  of  reason,  is  ever  seeking  for  deliverance 
from  its  intolerable  bondage.  But  when  it  seems  to  be 
bursting  off  its  fetters  and  rising  into  the  pure  atmosphere 
of  liberty,  the  great  Vulcanus  of  religious  bigotry  thrusts  it 
back  into  its  dungeon  and  forges  a  new  and  heavier  bolt 
to  hold  it  there  forever.  It  was  thus  when  the  heretical 
teachings  of  the  Greek  philosophers  dared  to  ignore  the 
religion  of  polytheism,  and  seek  in  reason  an  explanation 
of  the  universe  and  a  code  of  morals,  and  the  noble  life  of  a 
Socrates  was  not  enough  to  expiate  the  crime. 

It  was  so  when  the  Alexandrian  philosophers  dared  to 
assert  their  right  to  think,  and  that  noble  school  was  inter- 
dicted and  suppressed  by  the  arbitrary  fiat  of  the  Christian 
emperor  Justinian.  It  was  so  when  Martin  Luther  and  his 
followers  strove  to  burst  the  bonds  of  papal  tyranny  and 
purify  the  atmosphere  of  priestly  corruption,  and  the  world 
is  too  well  aware  with  what  a  sacrifice  of  human  blood 
they  paid  for  their  temerity.  It  was  so  when  the  Church 
of  England  pursued  the  Puritans  and  the  Catholics  from 
their  country  and  forced  them  to  take  an  asylum  on  the 
bleak  shores  of  New  England,  or  amid  the  barren  wilderness 
of  Maryland.  And,  as  if  no  lessons  of  experience  could 
teach  them,  the  same  Puritans  who  had  claimed  to  have 
been  seeking  religious  liberty,  showed  clearly  that  it  only 
meant  liberty  to  think  as  they  should  direct,  by  re-enact- 
ing history  and  persecuting  Baptists,  Quakers,  imaginary 
witches,  and  every  other  class  who  dared  to  dissent  from 
their  doctrines. 

And  now,  as  once  more  the  rational  element  is  rising 


46  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

into  respectability  and  power,  the  same  insatiate  monster, 
bigotry,  is  aiming  at  its  throat.  Man  has  indeed  advanced 
too  far  to  need  apprehend  the  spilling  of  blood.  But  there 
are  a  thousand  ways  in  which  the  persecutor  can  pursue 
his  victim  and  ruin  him  utterly,  without  the  shedding  of 
blood.  And  foremost  among  these  base  attempts  may  be 
ranked  the  present  demand  of  the  Church  for  a  national 
endorsement  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 
They  seek  to  subvert  the  very  principles  of  that  charter 
and  remand  the  nation  into  an  adulterous  marriage  with  a 
prostituted  Church. 

The  spirit  of  bigotry  manifests  itself  again  in  the  persis- 
tent effort  of  the  Church  to  prevent  the  introduction  of 
science  into  the  schools  and  universities  of  the  country. 
Science  is  the  acknowledged  enemy  of  Theology.  Why? 
Because  it  teaches  truth.  Theology  is  error.  Everything 
that  teaches  truth  militates  against  theology.  The  clergy 
admit  it,  and  therefore  they  oppose  science,  and  often  go 
so  far  as  to  regard  general  education  of  any  kind  as  danger- 
ous to  the  people.  Thus  it  is  that  they  are  endeavoring 
to  restrict  it  to  the  dead  languages,  unapplied  mathematics, 
religio-moral  philosophy,  and  Evidences  (?)  of  Christianity. 
They  dare  not  trust  science  in  any  form.  No,  they  dare  not 
even  trust  history  without  first  subjecting  it  to  the  censor- 
ship of  the  ecclesiastical  councils.  Impartial  history  tells 
too  many  truths  not  calculated  to  benefit  their  cause. 

Against  all  this  we  solemnly  protest,  and  demand  that 
our  constitution  in  this  particular  be  left  as  it  is,  broad  and 
unrestrictive,  the  especial  guardian  of  no  religion  or  creed; 
that  science  be  taught,  not  only  in  colleges  but  in  the  com- 
mon schools,  and  that  education  be  unfettered  by  theology; 
that  free  speech  and  freedom  of  the  press  be  preserved,  and 
universal  freedom  of  opinion  be  the  watchword  of  the  nation. 
For  thus  only  can  the  great  work  of  elevating  and  ameliorat- 
ing the  condition  of  the  people  be  successfully  prosecuted. 


March,  lS7O—Mtat.  28. 

8.    Legal  Persecution 

History. — Written  January  12,  1870. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  I,  No.  i,  March,  1870 


THE  recent  decision  of  Judge  Sharswood,  of  Philadel- 
phia, to  the  effect  that  a  charitable  bequest  to 
an  "infidel  society"  is  void,  has  surprised  every 
thinking  mind  in  the  country,  and  is  even  denounced  by 
many  of  those  to  whose  prejudices  the  judge  evidently 
thought  he  was  catering,  as  an  invasion  of  personal  rights. 
The  extra-judicial  opinion  of  the  judge  that  Pennsylvania 
has  an  established  State  religion  must  be  equally  abhorrent 
to  all  friends  of  republican  liberty. 

This  decision  should  carry  to  the  mind  of  every  liberal 
reader  the  immediate  necessity  of  organization.  It  is  time 
to  convince  religious  bigots  that  Infidelity,  so-called,  is 
entitled  to  that  legal  equality  which  our  national  constitu- 
tion guarantees. 

There  is  another  lesson  conveyed  in  this  decision;  that 
men  or  women  who  have  anything  to  give  for  charitable 
objects  ought  to  make  their  donations  while  living.  Other- 
wise their  intentions  may  be  defeated  by  those  who  assume 
that  they  alone  are  gifted  with  wisdom. 


47 


March,  1870—JEtat.  28. 

9.     [Editorial:  The  Present  Age] 

History. — Written  January  12, 1870. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  I,  No.  i,  March,  1870 


THE  present  age  is  eminently  prolific  of  free  thought 
and  revolt  against  that  kind  of  authority  which 
would  force  upon  the  people  the  primitive  civiliza- 
tions of  by-gone  centuries.  We  are  living  in,  and  have  to 
do  mainly,  with  the  present,  and  hence  we  shall  fearlessly 
criticise  all  systems  or  governments,  whether  they  claim  to 
be  divine  or  human,  which  serve  to  keep  the  mind  in  bond- 
age and  thwart  the  aspirations  of  the  human  race,  by 
holding  up  to  the  people  as  finalities  effete  systems  of  the 
past  which  are  wholly  inadequate  to  their  present  wants 
and  demands. 

In  advocating  or  expressing  our  views,  we  shall  avoid  all 
controversies  of  a  personal  nature;  and  appealing  rather 
to  the  reason  of  our  readers  than  to  their  prejudices  and 
fears,  seek  to  inculcate,  in  plain  and  simple  terms,  the 
necessity  of  governing  themselves  by  the  laws  and  truths 
of  Nature,  rather  than  looking  for  their  guides  to  action  in 
the  mysteries  set  up  by  fallible  men. 

We  do  not  propose  to  erect  an  infallible  standard  for  men 
and  women  to  worship  by,  and  therefore  we  can  afford  to 
be  charitable  toward  all;  holding,  as  we  do,  that  only 

48 


EDITORIAL:  THE  PRESENT  AGE  49 

through  an  interchange  of  views  are  we  at  all  likely  to  arrive 
at  correct  conclusions  upon  any  subject. 

We  shall  not  advocate  any  particular  theory  of  religion 
or  secularism,  but  leave  all  men  and  women  free  to  accept 
what  accords  with  their  unbiased  judgment  of  right,  or 
reject  what  they  cannot  conscientiously  accept.  Our  aim 
shall  be  to  secure  the  largest  possible  mental  liberty  for  all ; 
and  to  oppose  only  those  who  are  the  opponents  of  liberty. 


March,  1870—Mtat.  28. 

10.    [  Editorial :  Religious  Bias  of  Judges  ] 
History. — Written  January  13,  1870. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  I,  No.  i,  March,  1870 


OF  the  judges  of  th.e  superior  court  of  Cincinnati 
who  decided  the  question  regarding  the  Bible  in 
the  public  schools,  Judge  Storer  is  an  Episcopalian, 
Judge  Hoadley  a  Methodist,  and  Judge  Taft  a  liberal 
Unitarian. 

It  is  generally  known  that  the  two  orthodox  judges  voted 
to  retain  the  Bible,  and  Judge  Taft  to  exclude  it. 

How  completely  are  both  law  and  justice  sacrificed  to  the 
bias  and  private  interests  of  their  public  guardians!  We 
suppose  these  guardians  are  necessary,  but  "quis  custodes 
custodiet?" 


March,  l87O—Mtat.  28. 

11.    What  Does  It  Prove? 

History. — Probably  written  in  January,  1870. 
None  of  my  articles  in  the  Iconoclast  are  signed 
with  my  name  or  initials.  When  in  the  nature  of 
communications  they  were  often  given  some 
initial,  as  "F"  in  this  case. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  I,  No.  i,  March,  1870 


IT  is  said  that  particular  cases  prove  nothing.  If  a 
church  member  falls  they  say  it  is  no  fault  of  the 
Church,  and  no  argument  against  its  teachings. 
Grant  it.  No  one  wishes  to  make  it  serve  any  such  purpose. 
But  this  much  it  certainly  does  establish,  viz.,  the  fact  that 
orthodox  religion  does  not  make  a  man  any  better  than  if 
he  were  without  it.  The  profession  of  religion  does  not 
change  any  one.  It  leaves  every  one  with  all  his  former 
faults,  inclinations,  and  passions,  and  equally  liable  with 
other  men  to  yield  to  the  power  of  habit  or  temptation.  It 
does  not  change  human  nature. 

If  an  unbeliever  commits  a  fault,  the  Church  is  quick  to 
charge  it  to  his  lack  of  religion;  but  if  a  member  does  the 
same,  they  deny  that  it  proves  anything.  The  truth  is  that 
no  profession  of  faith  or  lack  of  faith  has  anything  to  do  with 
a  man's  morals.  They  depend  upon  something  entirely 

Si 


52  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

distinct;  upon  the  character  which  he  either  inherits  or 
acquires. 

Away  with  the  bug-bear  that  to  be  good  we  must  be 
pious!  Come  half-way  and  agree  with  us,  with  common 
sense,  and  with  universal  experience,  that  religion  has 
nothing  whatever  to  do  with  morality.  If  a  man  is  moral 
and  upright,  he  is  so  whether  within  or  without  the 
church.  If  he  is  mean  and  unprincipled  it  is  the  same. 
Nero  would  have  been  a  tyrant  if  he  had  been  a  Christian, 
Henry  VIII  would  have  been  a  monster  if  he  had  been  a 
pagan,  Aurelius  would  have  been  a  good  man  if  he  had  been 
a  Christian,  Washington  would  have  been  a  true  man  if  he 
had  been  a  stoic.  It  is  in  nature,  in  character,  in  disposition, 
and  not  in  religious  opinions.  History  proves  this.  A 
thousand  daily  events  demonstrate  it. 

If  we  were  disposed  to  be  uncharitable  we  might  instance 
a  score  of  cases  which  have  happened  within  a  very  brief 
period,  to  show  that  clergymen  and  church  members  commit 
some  of  the  most  foul  and  dastardly  crimes  and  abomina- 
tions. We  might  charge  them  home  upon  their  religious 
training.  But  we  forbear.  When  married  clergymen  elope 
with  their  laymen's  daughters;  when  Christian  ministers 
whip  their  own  children  to  death;  when  pious  clerks  rob 
the  religious  tract  societies;  when  these  and  a  thousand 
other  rascalities  in  the  Church  are  transpiring  too  fast  to 
keep  before  the  mind,  we  say  we  have  the  advantage.  But 
we  forbear  to  press  it.  We  prefer  to  be  fair  and  candid, 
and,  most  of  all,  we  prefer  to  be  truthful.  That  which  we 
do  claim ;  that  which  we  do  ask  them  to  admit ;  that  which 
these  facts  joined  to  the  testimony  of  all  human  history, 
demonstrates;  the  proposition  which  the  logic  of  all  the 
churchmen  in  Christendom  cannot  refute  by  any  fair 
argument,  is  this:  that  religion  and  morals  are  totally 
distinct;  that  religion  does  not  make  men  better;  that  being 
good  and  being  pious  are  no  more  related  than  being  rich 
and  being  handsome. 

F. 


April,  t870—JEtat.  28. 

12.    Science  vs.  Theology 

History. — Written  April  3-4, 1870. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  I,  No.  2,  April,  1870 


SCIENCE  is  the  great  Iconoclast.  Lord  Bacon,  the 
founder  of  inductive  science,  commenced  the  work 
of  purification  by  breaking  up  the  idols  of  the  human 
intellect.  He  found  it  necessary  before  his  "Great  Res- 
toration" could  begin  to  destroy  the  Idols  of  the  Tribe,  the 
Den,  the  Market,  and  the  Theater.  Ever  since  his  day, 
science  has  been  continuing  the  work  of  image-breaking. 
Steadily  pursuing  its  course,  turning  neither  to  the  right 
nor  to  the  left,  it  has  already  revolutionized  the  world. 
Begun  by  such  men  as  Galileo,  Bacon,  and  Newton;  con- 
tinued by  Franklin,  Cuvier,  and  Humboldt,  and  still  pushed 
forward  by  an  Agassiz,  a  Tyndall,  and  a  Huxley,  it  has  been 
quietly  and  unostentatiously  pursuing  its  course;  raising 
no  issues,  picking  no  quarrels,  avoiding  all  controversy,  and 
yet  exerting  an  influence  which  is  upheaving  the  old  systems, 
both  of  government  and  of  religion,  and  threatening  to 
rebuild  the  entire  frame-work  of  society  itself.  But  its 
especial  tendency — we  do  not  say  its  aim — is  to  purify, 
if  not  to  supersede,  the  whole  system  of  theology  which 
has  so  long  prevailed  over  mankind.  And  though  it 

53 


54  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

does  not  attack  theology,  still  it  is  to-day  shaking  its  very 
foundations. 

The  aim  of  science,  pre-eminently  and  exclusively,  is  to 
know  the  truth.  It  has  no  prejudices;  it  rides  no  hobbies; 
it  clings  to  no  pet  ideas.  It  is  ready  to  sacrifice  its  most 
cherished  theories  the  moment  they  are  found  not  to  square 
with  that  one  great  standard,  truth.  It  is  willing  to  labor ; 
it  is  not  sluggish,  or  delicate,  or  puffed  up.  It  digs  its 
treasures  out  of  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  or  seeks  them  amid 
the  hazy  nebulae  of  heaven.  It  toils  and  delves  and  asks 
no  praise  from  man,  no  favor  shown  of  God.  But  this  is 
perhaps  no  more  than  the  stoics  did;  no  more  than  the 
pilgrim  or  the  monk  has  done.  But  a  tree  is  known  by  its 
fruits. 

The  candid  world  is  beginning  to  compare  the  fruits  of 
theology  with  those  of  science.  And  what  does  it  find? 
It  finds  that  theology,  though  as  old  as  human  history,  has 
brought  few  if  any  beneficial  results;  while  on  the  other 
hand,  its  manifold  evils  lie  scattered  all  along  its  pathway. 
Take  from  its  history  all  the  details  of  its  wars,  its  conquests, 
its  persecutions,  and  its  massacres,  and  there  would  be 
nothing  left  but  the  graves  of  its  hundred  million  victims, 
and  the  magnificent  temples  and  costly  tombs  which  it  has 
taken  the  bread  from  the  mouths  of  a  starving  world  for 
four  thousand  years  to  erect. 

Turning  from  such  a  picture  to  the  result  of  scientific 
labor,  behold  the  contrast!  Scarce  three  hundred  years 
have  sufficed  to  transform  the  whole  aspect  of  society.  To 
enumerate  the  results  of  the  application  of  the  power  of 
steam  and  electricity,  so  apparent  to  all,  and  so  often 
alluded  to  as  to  have  almost  become  hackneyed,  would  give 
but  a  meager  idea  indeed  of  what  science  has  done  to  elevate, 
enlighten,  and  happify  mankind.  Its  magic  wand  has 
touched  almost  every  known  object  in  nature — and  many 
but  for  it  unknown — and  they  have  taken  forms  of  beauty, 
of  convenience,  and  of  usefulness.  Brilliant  gas  jets  have 
superseded  the  dim  and  unsightly  tapers  and  candles  of  the 


SCIENCE  VS.  THEOLOGY  55 

past;  elegant  fuel-saving  stoves  have  supplanted  the  ancient 
chimney  places;  a  thousand  labor-saving  machines  relieve 
the  weary  limbs  of  toiling  men  and  women,  while  countless 
factories,  mills,  and  machine  shops  are  supplying  fabrics 
of  every  description  to  enhance  the  comfort  and  increase 
the  enjoyment  of  mankind. 

We  can  scarcely  fix  our  mind  upon  one  temporal  blessing 
that  we  enjoy  to-day,  from  the  luxury  of  good  food  to  the 
luxury  of  good  health,  for  which  we  are  not  indebted  to 
science.  But  besides  these  countless  physical  blessings 
science  affords  the  highest  and  purest  intellectual  delight. 
It  has  let  us  into  the  arcana  of  the  infinite  universe,  and 
taught  us  to  contemplate  the  wonders  of  nature,  from  the 
vast  firmament  of  revolving  spheres  to  the  infinitesimal 
world  of  moving  atoms;  from  the  sparkling  crystal  to  the 
living  organism,  the  contemplation  of  which  sublime  truths 
yields  to  the  mind  a  holier  ecstasy  than  any  reflections  upon 
the  character  and  attributes  of  anthropomorphic  deities, 
or  any  selfish  hopes  of  a  future  eternity  of  bliss.  And  when 
we  remember  that  which  is  the  crowning  glory  of  science, 
that  with  all  these  blessings  she  has  never  cost  one  human 
life,  one  drop  of  human  blood,  one  pang  of  human  suffering, 
how  long  will  the  world  hesitate  to  pronounce  its  decision? 


April,  1870—JEtat.  28 

13.    Organization 

History. — Written  March  21,  1870. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  I,  No.  2,  April,  1870 


A  WANT  of  organization,  on  the  one  hand,  has 
prevented  more  human  enjoyment  than  any 
other  one  cause ;  while  on  the  other  hand  perhaps, 
organization,  where  it  has  existed,  has  been  almost  as  fatal 
to  human  welfare  as  the  lack  of  it  where  it  has  not  existed. 
The  evil  that  it  has  done,  however,  is  more  apparent  than 
that  which  its  absence  has  permitted  to  be  done;  and  it  is 
not  to  be  wondered  at  that  liberal  minds  should  draw  from 
this  fact  the  conclusion  that  organization  has,  upon  the 
whole,  been  an  evil  and  should  be  avoided.  But  in  what- 
ever light  we  regard  it,  we  cannot  escape  learning  one  lesson, 
which  an  observation  of  its  effects  ever  forcibly  inculcates, 
viz.,  that  organization  is  a  power.  If  formed  in  an  evil 
cause,  it  wields  a  mighty  power  for  evil ;  if  in  a  good  cause, 
for  good.  The  question,  therefore,  is  no  longer,  whether 
organization  is  right  in  itself,  but  whether  the  cause  in 
which  it  is  formed  is  a  righteous  cause. 

Making  all  due  allowance  for  man's  liability  to  err  and 
mistake  the  true  effects  of  his  actions,  we  are  compelled 
at  last  to  fall  back  upon  our  own  judgment,  as  the  world 
has  always  done  in  the  past,  and  act  out  our  convictions 

56 


ORGANIZATION  57 

with  boldness,  remembering,  in  the  words  of  Jefferson,  that 
"we  are  answerable,  not  for  the  rightness,  but  for  the 
uprightness  "  of  our  deeds. 

While,  therefore,  we  would  warn  every  individual  to 
think  well  before  seeking  to  bring  this  powerful  engine  of 
co-operation  to  bear  upon  any  institution,  and  satisfy  him- 
self in  advance  that  such  a  course  is  for  the  substantial 
good  of  mankind,  at  the  same  time  we  cannot  too  strongly 
urge  him  not  to  fail  to  adopt  it,  with  all  the  earnestness  of 
his  soul,  when  once  he  has  thus  matured  and  settled  his 
convictions.  Have  you  a  truth  which,  if  enforced,  would 
benefit  humanity?  Seek,  then,  to  secure  its  adoption.  As 
long  as  you  keep  it  locked  up  in  your  own  bosom  it  is  useless 
to  yourself  and  to  others.  If  a  thousand  persons  possess 
the  same  truth  and  thus  conceal  it,  the  great  evils  which  its 
diffusion  would  prevent  will  still  go  on  as  though  they  were 
as  ignorant  as  the  rest  of  mankind.  Neither  has  any  one 
or  two  of  them,  acting  independently,  any  appreciable 
power  to  prevent  them.  But  let  them  organize;  let  the 
thousand  unite;  put  their  offerings,  however  small,  together; 
concentrate  their  efforts,  crystalize  their  common  truth  into 
words  that  shall  burn,  and  scatter  them  broadcast  over  the 
land,  then  shall  they  find  that  they  will  bring  forth  a  rich 
and  abundant  harvest. 

Permit  us  an  illustration.  In  the  District  of  Columbia 
there  are,  safely  speaking,  a  thousand  persons  who  are 
firmly  convinced,  from  the  most  irresistible  evidence,  that 
the  existing  orthodox  church  (Catholic  and  Evangelical 
Protestant)  is  an  irreconcilable  enemy  of  mankind;  that  it  is 
founded  only  in  error,  and  productive  only  of  evil.  These — 
we  speak  not  now  of  Unitarians,  Jews,  or  Spiritualists;  not 
because  they  do  not  come  under  this  definition,  nor  because 
we  do  not  recognize  them  as  liberals,  but  because  they  have, 
generally,  distinct  organizations  of  their  own — are  doing 
absolutely  nothing  to  carry  out  this  their  settled  conviction 
and  humanitarian  principle.  Why?  Because  they  are  not 
organized.  Could  such  an  organization  be  formed,  it 


58  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

would  equal,  if  not  surpass  in  influence,  any  one  sect  or 
church  organization  in  the  District. 

A  nucleus  for  such  an  organization  has  already  been 
formed.  Few  in  numbers  and  poor  in  purse,  but  rich  in 
zeal  for  the  success  of  the  cause,  they  have  nevertheless 
started  a  liberal  paper.  True,  it  is  small,  and  issued  only 
monthly,  but  it  is  a  beginning,  and  on  a  scale  which  can 
be  kept  up  at  all  events.  The  association  which  has 
undertaken  this  enterprise,  without  a  dream  of  profit  but 
with  a  certainty  of  pecuniary  loss,  is  founded  on  the  broadest 
and  most  liberal  principles.  It  asks  but  one  qualification 
for  its  members — non-conformity  with  the  Orthodox 
Church — thus  leaving  them  untrammelled  with  any  belief 
or  disbelief  in  any  and  all  other  doctrines  or  beliefs.  Now 
we  ask,  what  good  reason  can  be  assigned  to  exist  why  this 
nucleus  should  not  be  swelled  into  a  large  and  powerful 
organization,  capable  of  commanding  respect  and  wielding 
a  great  and  widespread  influence  for  good?  We  see  no 
reason  why  every  liberal  in  the  District  should  not  come 
forward  immediately  and  join  the  National  Liberal  Reform 
League,  either  as  an  active  or  a  contributing  member,  and 
thus  render  some  practical  aid  to  so  praiseworthy  an  object. 
Fifty  cents  every  three  months  is  surely  a  mere  trifle,  and 
many  should  be  willing  to  make  additional  contributions. 
Our  little  paper  might,  in  this  manner,  be  enlarged  into  a 
respectable  journal  and  published  weekly,  and  Washington 
would  stand  foremost  among  the  cities  of  the  United  States 
in  advancing  the  good  cause  of  mental,  moral,  and  religious 
liberty. 


April,  1870—SEtat.  28. 

14.    Charles  H.  Read  and  the  Faculty 
of  Harvard  University 

History. — The  letter  to  the  Faculty  was  drafted 
by  me  April  4,  1870,  and  subsequently  signed  by 
the  ten  persons.  Dean  Gurney's  reply  was  re- 
ceived April  1 3th. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  VoL  I,  Ho.  2,  April,  1870 


INTERESTING  CORRESPONDENCE 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  April  5,  1870. 
To  the  Faculty  of  Harvard  University. 

SIRS:  The  undersigned  take  the  liberty  of  sending  you 
the  enclosed  hand-bill  of  Mr.  Charles  H.  Read,  and  re- 
spectfully call  your  attention  to  the  last  paragraph  of  the 
same,  in  which  an  allusion  to  you  is  made,  and  your  names, 
or  at  least  some  of  them  are  attached.  * 

1  NOTE. — The  following  is  the  paragraph  which  appeals  on  the  hand- 
bill alluded  to: 

"Mr.  Read  has  appeared  before  eighteen  of  the  Professors  of  Har- 
vard, and  they  pronounce  his  exhibition  one  of  the  most  wonderful 
they  have  ever  witnessed;  and  that  the  manifestations  were  satisfactory 
to  them — although  they  could  not  account  for  them  upon  scientific 
principles. — Prof.  Treadwell,  Prof.  Agassiz,  Prof.  Eustis,  Dr.  Wyman." 

59 


60  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

•  We  are  inquirers,  and  have  no  object  in  view  but  to 
ascertain  the  truth  in  respect  to  this  matter.  We  have 
seen  Mr.  R.  perform,  some  of  us  under  quite  favorable 
circumstances,  and  can  but  confess  our  inability  to  account 
for  many  things  done  by  him  upon  any  known  scientific 
principles.  Still,  aware  as  we  are  of  the  extent  to  which 
tricks  of  deception  and  legerdemain  have  been  practised, 
we  do  not  feel  authorized  to  declare  that  these  may  not  be 
classed  in  this  category,  and  are  anxious  to  hear  the  opinion 
of  those  more  learned  in  science,  and  who  have  enjoyed 
better  opportunities  for  investigation.  We  should  there- 
fore be  especially  gratified  if  you  would  be  pleased  to  answer 
for  us  the  following  questions  : 

1.  Is  the  statement  made  in  the  paragraph  alluded  to  of 
Mr.  Read's  hand-bill  correct  in  substance? 

2.  Had  Mr.  R.  any  authority  to  attach  the  names  there 
signed? 

3.  Were  the  results  of  your  investigations  published,  as 
he  states,   in  the  Boston   Commercial  Advertiser,  or  any 
other  paper;  and  if  so,  of  what  date? 

Mr.  Read  states  that  he  appeared  seven  times  before  you ; 
that  you  placed  him  upon  a  glass  floor,  tied  him  with  a  silk 
cord,  sewed  him  up  in  a  sack,  and  did  many  other  things  to 
test  the  phenomena,  but  that  they  took  place  notwithstand- 
ing. To  give  these  statements  credence  we  require  some- 
thing more  than  his  testimony;  but  if  they  are  true,  your 
confirmation  of  them  would  be  worth  more  to  us  than  even 
the  testimony  of  our  own  senses.  Any  general  statements 
on  your  part  with  regard  to  these  matters  will  be  thankfully 
received. 

In  conclusion  we  desire  to  re-assure  you  that  we  are 
prompted  to  this  action  by  no  other  motives  than  those  of 
pure  scientific  inquiry,  and  desirous  neither  of  proving  nor 
disproving  any  pre-existing  theories  of  our  own,  either  in 
physics,  metaphysics,  or  religion.  We  have  no  doubt  that 
these  phenomena  take  place  in  accordance  with  natural  laws, 
and  we  only  desire  to  know  whether,  in  your  opinion  (pro- 


C.  H.  READ  AND  HARVARD  UNIVERSITY    61 

vided  you  have  made  the  experiments  alleged),  these  laws 
are  among  those  already  known,  but  disguised  by  the  dex- 
terity of  the  performer;  or  whether  they  are  to  be  classed 
among  those  (of  which  there  are  still  doubtless  many) 
which  science  has  not  yet  been  able  to  deduce  and  define. 
Hoping  you  may  not  deem  our  demands  unreasonable, 
and  may,  as  far  as  practicable,  accede  to  them,  we  respect- 
fully subscribe  ourselves. 

L.  F.  WARD.  W.  C.  MURDOCK. 

JONATHAN  FORREST.     H.  T.  SMITH. 

M.  H.   DOOLITTLE.  J.  H.  KlNGSBERY. 

J.  RECORD.  WM.  H.  SCHIVELY. 

MAURICE  PECHIN.        GEO.  MCLANE  WOOD. 

REPLY 

HARVARD  COLLEGE,  CAMBRIDGE  MASS., 

nth  April,  1870. 
Messrs.  Ward,  and  others: 

GENTLEMEN:  I  remember  that  Prof.  Wyman,  who  is 
now  in  Europe,  mentioned  to  me  some  time  last  year,  that 
he  was  present,  with  other  gentlemen  of  Cambridge,  at  the 
house  of  Prof.  Treadwell,  in  which  a  man  who  professed  to 
be  tied  and  untied  in  some  mysterious  manner,  and  who  went 
through  the  usual  programme  of  that  character  at  first  with 
success,  found  himself  unable  to  repeat  the  performance 
when  he  was  tied  with  simple  spool  cotton ;  and  again,  when 
a  piece  of  sticking-plaster  was  put  over  the  knot. 

Since  receiving  your  note  I  have  written  to  Prof.  Eustis, 
who  was  also  present  on  that  occasion,  and  who  writes  me, 
"that  no  doubt  was  left  in  the  mind  of  any  one  that  it 
was  a  simple  trick  of  slipping  the  hands  out  and  replacing 
them."  He  thinks  the  man's  name  was  Read,  but  does 
not  feel  sure  on  that  point.  "The  spool  cotton,  with  a 
simple  tie  around  each  wrist,  and  more  than  a  foot  slack, 
with  no  other  fastening,  was  thoroughly  disheartening  to  the 
spirits,  and  they  abandoned  the  field. " 


62  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

Prof.  Wyman  told  me  nothing  of  "insulation,"  "silk 
cord,"  "sewing  up  in  a  sack,"  and  I  entirely  discredit  each 
item  of  the  story. 

Truly  yours, 

E.  W.  GURNEY, 

Dean  of  the  Faculty. 


April,  1870—JEtat.  28. 

15.    Abraham  Lincoln's  Religion 

History. — Copied  from  the  Toledo  Index  soon 
after  it  appeared  and  inserted  with  an  explanatory 
note. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  I,  No.  2,  April,  1870 


TE  Toledo  (Ohio)  Index,  of  April  2d,  has  an  article 
upon  the  above  subject,  from  the  pen  of  W.  H. 
Herndon.     Mr.  H.  was  for  twenty  years  the  law 
partner  and  intimate  friend  of  the  late  President  of  the 
United  States,  and  must  consequently  be  well-informed 
upon  the  subject  which  he  so  ably  handles.     The  article 
is  too  lengthy  for  our  columns,  and  we  therefore  give  our 
readers  only  its  main  features : 

"Mr.  Lincoln  moved  to  this  city  (Springfield,  111.),  in  1837, 
and  here  he  became  acquainted  with  various  men  of  his 
own  way  of  thinking.  At  that  time  they  called  themselves 
Freethinkers  or  free  thinking  men.  I  remember  all  these 
things  distinctly,  for  I  was  with  them,  heard  them,  and  was 
one  of  them.  Mr.  Lincoln  here  found  other  works — Hume, 
Gibbon,  and  others,  and  drank  them  in.  He  made  no 
secret  of  his  views,  no  concealment  of  his  religion.  He 
boldly  avowed  himself  an  infidel.  When  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
a  candidate  for  our  Legislature  he  was  accused  of  being 
an  infidel,  and  of  having  said  that  Jesus  Christ  was  an 

63 


64  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

illegitimate  child.  He  never  denied  his  opinions,  nor  flinched 
from  his  religious  views ;  he  was  a  true  man,  and  yet  it  may 
be  truthfully  said  that  in  1837  his  religion  was  low  indeed. 
In  his  moments  of  gloom  he  would  doubt,  if  he  did  not 
sometimes  deny,  God.  He  made  me  once  erase  the  name 
of  God  from  a  speech  which  I  was  about  to  make  in  1854, 
and  he  did  this  in  Washington  to  one  of  his  friends.  I 
cannot  now  name  the  man  nor  the  place  he  occupied  in 
Washington ;  it  will  be  known  some  time.  I  have  the  evi- 
dence, and  intend  to  keep  it. 

"Mr.  Lincoln  ran  for  Congress  against  the  Rev.  Peter 
Cartwright,  in  the  year  1847  or  1848.  In  that  contest  he 
was  accused  of  being  an  infidel,  if  not  an  atheist;  he  never 
denied  the  charge — would  not — 'would  die  first';  in  the 
first  place  because  he  knew  it  could  and  would  be  proved  on 
him;  and  in  the  second  place  he  was  too  true  to  his  own 
convictions,  to  his  own  soul,  to  deny  it.  From  what  I 
know  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  from  what  I  have  heard  and  verily 
believe,  I  can  say :  first,  that  he  did  not  believe  in  a  special 
creation,  his  idea  being  that  all  creation  was  an  evolution 
under  law;  secondly,  he  did  not  believe  that  the  Bible  was 
a  special  revelation  from  God,  as  the  Christian  world  con- 
tends; thirdly,  he  did  not  believe  in  miracles,  as  understood 
by  the  Christian  world ;  fourthly,  he  believed  in  universal 
inspiration  and  miracles  under  law;  fifthly,  he  did  not 
believe  that  Jesus  was  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  as  the 
Christian  world  contends;  sixthly,  he  believed  that  all 
things,  both  matter  and  mind,  were  governed  by  laws, 
universal,  absolute,  and  eternal.  All  his  speeches  and 
remarks  in  Washington  conclusively  prove  this.  Law  was 
to  Lincoln  everything — and  special  interferences,  shams 
and  delusions. 

"  I  do  not  remember  ever  seeing  the  words  Jesus  or  Christ 
in  print,  as  uttered  by  Mr.  Lincoln.  If  he  used  these  words 
they  can  be  found.  He  uses  the  word  God  but  seldom. 
I  never  heard  him  use  the  name  of  Christ  or  Jesus,  but  to 
confute  the  idea  that  he  was  the  Christ,  the  only  and  truly 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN'S  RELIGION  65 

begotten  Son  of  God,  as  the  Christian  world  understands  it. 
The  idea  that  Mr.  Lincoln  carried  the  New  Testament  or 
Bible  in  his  bosom  or  boots,  to  draw  on  his  opponent  in 
debate,  is  ridiculous.  If  Christianity  cannot  live  without 
falsehood,  the  sooner  it  dies  the  better  for  mankind.  Every 
great  man  that  dies — infidel,  pantheist,  theist,  or  atheist — is 
instantly  dragged  into  the  folds  of  the  Church,  and  trans- 
formed through  falsehood  into  the  great  defender  of  the 
faith,  unless  his  opinions  are  too  well  known  to  allow  it. 
Is  Christianity  in  dread  or  fear?  What  is  the  matter  with 
it?  Is  it  sick,  and  does  it  dream  its  doom?  Would  that  it 
would  shake  itself  free  from  its  follies,  and  still  live  till  all 
mankind  outgrow  it!" 


May,  1870—JEtat.  28. 

16.    The  Entering  Wedge 

History. — Written  May  6,  1870.  I  made  no 
effort  to  preserve  the  manuscripts  of  my  contri- 
butions to  the  Iconoclast,  but  of  this  one  I  find  the 
manuscript  among  my  papers,  only  the  last  folio 
is  wanting. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C .,  Vol.  I,  No.  3,  May,  1870 


ONE  of  the  most  important  duties  of  an  independent 
journal  is  to  disabuse  the  public  mind  of  its  false 
impressions.  There  is  no  more  deep-seated  or  wide- 
spread popular  error  at  this  day  than  that  which  prevails 
respecting  the  religious  opinions  of  great  men.  It  has  ever 
been  the  aim  of  the  Church,  in  its  efforts  at  propagandism, 
to  lay  claim  to  every  superior  intellect  that  the  world  has 
produced  the  moment  he  passed  off  the  stage  of  action  and 
make  him  a  pillar  of  the  Church.  This  has  proved  a  very 
successful  means  of  bolstering  it  up.  Every  man  of  dis- 
tinction, whether  in  the  world  of  literature  or  science, 
whether  patriot,  sage,  or  philanthropist,  is  declared  to  have 
been  an  ardent  supporter  of  the  received  theology,  as  soon  as 
death  has  sealed  his  lips  and  rendered  a  disclaimer  no  longer 
possible. 
That  these  claims  are  not  in  some  cases  to  a  certain  degree 

66 


THE  ENTERING  WEDGE  67 

legitimate,  we  do  not  deny.  It  would  indeed  be  strange  if  it 
were  not  so.  But  that  they  are  generally  true  at  all,  and 
that  they  are  ever  true  to  their  whole  extent,  we  do  deny. 
On  the  contrary,  it  is  a  remarkable  fact,  that  at  least  three- 
fourths  of  all  the  great  personages  that  have  adorned, 
illuminated,  and  benefited  the  world,  since  the  dawn  of 
Christianity,  have  been  either  tacit  or  avowed  dissenters 
from  the  leading  doctrines  of  the  Church. 

We  therefore  deem  it  our  duty  to  correct  this  error.  We 
do  not,  however,  expect  to  do  this  by  bold  denials  or  assevera- 
tions. We  propose  to  do  it  in  the  only  legitimate  way,  by 
publishing,  from  time  to  time,  as  our  space  will  permit, 
verbatim  extracts  from  the  writings  and  sayings  of  these  men, 
and  reliable  testimony  of  their  sentiments  on  this  subject. 
We  have  already,  in  this  fair  and  impartial  manner,  demon- 
strated that  Thomas  Jefferson,  the  framer  of  our  great 
national  charter,  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  was  not 
only  no  theologian,  but  that  he  was  rather  a  genuine  free- 
thinker, a  veritable  doubter  about  all  those  untangible  and 
unpractical  dogmas,  even  to  that  of  a  God.  And  we  have 
shown  that  Benjamin  Franklin  had  a  supreme  abhorrence 
of  the  worthless  ceremonies  and  formalities  and  creeds  that 
made  up  the  visible  Church  in  his  day.  And  last,  but  not 
least,  we  have  published  a  document  of  the  utmost  reliabil- 
ity to  show  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  an  Infidel!  He  in 
whose  noble  nature  were  embodied  the  purest  morality,  the 
highest  virtues,  the  broadest  charity ;  the  man  whose  name 
will  be  green  in  the  memory  of  a  grateful  people  when  the 
names  of  Constantine  and  Luther  and  Wesley  have  been 
forgotten ;  that  such  a  man  should  have  been  an  infidel,  an 
unbeliever,  a  repudiator  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Christian 
Church  is  a  fact  which  should  arouse  the  nation  to  a  more 
thoughtful  contemplation  of  the  inherent  value  of  an  insti- 
tution which  claims  to  be  the  reformer  of  the  world ! 

It  should,  and  we  predict  it  will  be  an  entering  wedge 
that  shall  ultimately  cleave  asunder  the  ponderous  timbers 
of  that  institution,  destroy  its  foundation,  overthrow  its 


68  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

superstructure,  and  seek  to  build  upon  its  ruins  a  temple 
of  pure  justice,  to  erect  an  altar  to  liberty,  and  a  shrine  of 
truth,  on  which  no  fires  shall  be  kindled  but  the  fire  of  love 
to  man,  and  from  which  no  incense  shall  ascend  but  the 
incense  of  mercy,  of  charity,  and  of  fraternal  affection. 


June,  1870—JEtat.  29. 

17.     Who  Destroyed  the  Alexandrian 
Library? 

History. — Copied  May  31  and  June  3,  1870,  and 
inserted  with  the  explanatory  note. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  I,  No.  4,  June,  1870 


EVERYBODY  is  familiar  with  the  story  of  the  burn- 
ing of  the  Alexandrian  library  by  the  Saracens, 
and  as  it  has  long  been  used  as  a  weapon  against 
the  Mohammedan  religion,  we  publish  the  following  ex- 
tracts from  the  two  highest  authorities  in  the  world,  for 
the  purpose  of  showing  our  readers  the  importance  of  search- 
ing for  themselves,  instead  of  taking  statements  on  the  faith 
of  a  biassed  public  opinion  or  a  warped  current  literature. 
In  its  article  on  Alexandria,  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica 
says: 

"This  structure  (alluding  to  the  Serapeion)  surpassed  in 
beauty  and  magnificence  all  others  in  the  world  except  the 
Capitol  at  Rome.  Within  the  verge  of  this  temple  was 
the  famous  Alexandrian  library,  .  .  .  containing  no  fewer 
than  700,000  volumes. 

"As  the  museum  was  at  first  in  that  quarter  of  the  city 
called  the  Brucheion  near  the  royal  palace,  the  library  was 

69 


70  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

placed  there  likewise;  but  when  it  came  to  contain  400,000 
volumes,  another  library  within  the  Serapeion  was  erected, 
by  way  of  supplement  to  it.  In  this  second  library  300,000 
volumes  in  process  of  time  were  deposited,  making  in  all 
700,000. 

"In  the  war  carried  on  by  Julius  Caesar  against  the  in- 
habitants of  the  city,  the  library  in  the  Brucheion,  -with  all 
its  contents,  was  reduced  to  ashes.  The  library  in  the  Sera- 
peion, however,  still  remains,  and  here  Cleopatra  deposited 
200,000  volumes  of  the  Pergamenean  library.  These  and 
others  added  from  time  to  time  rendered  the  new  library  of 
Alexandria  more  numerous  and  considerable  than  the  former, 
but  when  the  Temple  of  Serapis  was  demolished  under  the 
archiepiscopate  of  Theophilus,  A.D.  j8p,  the  valuable  library 
was  pillaged  or  destroyed,  and  twenty  years  afterwards  the 
empty  shelves  excited  the  regret  and  indignation  of  every  intelli- 
gent spectator." 

The  same  authority,  under  the  article  "Amru,"  further 
says: 

"To  Amru  has  generally  been  attributed  the  burning  of 
the  famous  Alexandrian  library,  by  command  of  khaliff 
Omar;  but  with  this  act  of  barbarism,  so  repugnant  to  the 
character  of  Omar  and  his  general,  he  is  for  the  first  time 
charged  by  Abulpharagius,  a  Christian  writer  who  lived  six 
centuries  later.  It  is  highly  probable  that  few  of  the  700,000 
volumes,  collected  by  the  Ptolemies,  remained  at  the  time 
of  the  Arab  conquest,  when  we  consider  the  various  calami- 
ties of  Alexandria,  from  the  time  of  Csesar  to  those  of  Cara- 
calla,  Diocletian,  and  the  disgraceful  pillage  of  the  library,  in 
A.D.  389,  under  the  rule  of  a  Christian  Bishop,  Theophilus, 
a  far  less  respectable  character  than  the  Arabian  conquerors." 

We  add  the  following  corroborative  statement,  made  by 
the  equally  unimpeachable  authority  Chambers'  Encyclo- 
pedia in  its  article  on  the  Alexandrian  library : 

"The  other  part  of  the  library  was  kept  in  the  Serapeion, 
the  temple  of  Jupiter  Serapis,  where  it  remained  till  the 
time  of  Theodosius  the  Great.  When  this  emperor  permit- 


THE  ALEXANDRIAN  LIBRARY  71 

ted  all  the  heathen  temples  in  the  Roman  empire  to  be  de- 
stroyed, the  magnificent  temple  of  Jupiter  Serapis  was  not 
spared.  A  mob  of  fanatic  Christians  led  on  by  Archibishop 
Theophilus,  stormed  and  destroyed  the  temple,  together,  it  is 
most  likely,  with  the  greater  part  of  its  literary  treasures. 

"//  was  at  this  time,  that  the  destruction  of  the  library  was 
begun,  and  not  at  the  taking  of  Alexandria  by  the  Calif  Omar, 
642  A.D.  The  historian  Orosius,  who  visited  the  place 
after  the  destruction  of  the  temple  by  the  Christians,  relates 
that  he  then  saw  only  the  empty  shelves  of  the  library." 


June,  1870—JEtat.  29. 

18.    [Editorial:  Frederick  Douglass  on 
the  Churches] 

History. — The  letter  referred  to  appears  on  the 
last  page  of  this  number  of  the  Iconoclast  and 
occupies  the  whole  page.  I  thought  it  well  to 
make  a  brief  editorial  comment. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  I,  No.  4,  June,  1870 


WE  give  much  space  in  this  issue  of  our  paper  to 
Mr.  Frederick  Douglass'  letter  on  the  Churches. 
It  is  a  compact  and  masterly  argument,  and 
cannot  fail  to  do  much  to  help  raise  the  colored  race  out  of 
that  abyss  of  superstition  into  which  they  are  notoriously 
sunk.  This  protest  is  timely  as  well  as  powerful.  Mr. 
Douglass  has  done  much  to  hasten  on  the  day  of  their 
emancipation  from  the  shackles  which  bound  their  bodies. 
He  now  sees  that  they  need  emancipation  from  those  which 
bind  their  souls.  He  is  a  true  reformer,  attacking  the 
enemies  of  human  happiness  wherever  they  are  to  be  found, 
and  when  driven  from  one  stronghold,  instead  of  folding 
his  arms  as  many  philanthropists  do  at  the  first  temporary 
victory,  he  still  pursues  them,  though  he  thus  brings  down 
upon  his  head  the  anathemas  of  the  Church.  Every  ob- 
server of  events  knows  the  Church  has  been  the  great  bul- 

72 


FREDERICK  DOUGLASS  ON  THE  CHURCHES    73 

wark  of  slavery,  while  nearly  all  the  original  Abolitionists 
were  Infidels.  Its  attempt,  at  this  late  day,  to  lay  claim  to 
the  honor  of  freeing  the  black  man  is  only  one  of  those 
unprincipled  usurpations  and  bare-faced  swindles  which 
could  never  be  tolerated  except  when  hallowed  under  the 
saintly  robes  of  religion.  We  welcome  Mr.  Douglass  into 
the  ranks  of  independent  thinkers,  and  hope  he  will  devote 
the  remainder  of  his  life  to  the  truly  philanthropic  work 
of  eradicating  superstition  from  among  his  people. 


June,  1870— JEtat.  29. 

19.    What  Has  Been  Gained?    No.  1 

History.     Written  in  June,   1870.     The  manu- 
script of  this,  and  also  of  No.  2,  is  preserved  intact. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  I,  No.  4,  June,  1870 


IN  the  long  struggle  between  scientific  truth  and  theo- 
logical error  the  former  has  steadily  been  gaming 
ground.     By  slow  and  almost  imperceptible  degrees 
the  latter  has  been  yielding  and  drawing  in  its  lines  upon  its 
ultimate  fastnesses  of  faith.     The  time  has  now  come  when 
we  may  take  a  retrospective  view  of  the  field,  and  note  the 
chief  advantages  of  the  campaign. 

The  triumph  of  the  Copernican  theory  of  astronomy,  as 
foreshadowed  by  Copernicus  and  demonstrated  by  Galileo, 
over  that  of  Ptolemy,  as  taught  by  that  astronomer  in 
Egypt,  and  clung  to  with  such  desperation  by  the  Christian 
Church,  may  be  regarded  the  first  of  great  importance. 
The  Ptolemaic  theory  that  the  earth  was  flat  and  stationary, 
and  that  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars  revolved  around  it  as  a 
center,  was  peculiarly  adapted  to  support  the  statements 
respecting  these  things  made  in  the  Hebrew  Bible.  The 
Hebrew  writers  were  none  of  them  either  scientific  or  philo- 
sophical. Like  everybody  else  at  the  time  they  wrote, 
they  were  totally  ignorant  of  all  such  matters,  without  the 

74 


WHAT  HAS  BEEN  GAINED?  75 

Grecian  shrewdness  of  avoiding  allusion  to  things  of  which 
they  were  so  completely  in  the  dark.  Hence  they  often 
spoke  of  them,  and  always  just  as  they  appeared  to  them. 
In  such  a  state  of  ignorance,  the  theory  above  referred  to 
was  the  most  natural  and  the  first  to  develop  itself.  Agree- 
ing as  it  did  with  the  Bible,  it  was  eminently  satisfactory 
to  the  Christian  world,  and  they  naturally  regarded  with 
jealousy  any  attempt  to  supersede  it  by  a  new  or  contrary 
theory.  Hence  they  resisted  the  Copernican  theory  that 
the  earth  revolves  upon  its  axis  and  in  an  orbit,  together 
with  all  the  rest  of  the  present  consistent  philosophy  of  the 
solar  system.  "What!"  said  they,  "is  the  earth  after  all 
only  a  little  fraction  of  the  universe;  is  it  a  mere  satellite 
revolving  round  the  sun,  smaller  than  several  of  the  planets ; 
is  the  sun,  which  the  Bible  tells  us  was  created  to  rule  the 
day  for  man's  benefit,  a  vast  world,  thousands  of  tunes 
greater  than  the  earth,  and  stationary  with  respect  to  it? 
This  cannot  be ;  this  must  not  be.  It  would  be  a  death  blow 
to  the  Bible.  This  heresy  must  be  suppressed. " 

We  all  know  with  what  determination  they  carried  out 
this  purpose.  The  persecution  of  the  authors  of  this  great 
discovery  is  a  fact  in  history  which  is  familiar  to  every  school 
girl,  and  a  stain  which  can  never  be  wiped  out.  But  the 
heresy  has  triumphed;  and  to-day  he  would  be  deemed  a 
fool,  whether  Christian,  Jew,  or  Infidel,  who  would  still 
aver  that  the  earth  is  flat  and  stationary.  Such  is  the 
silent  power  with  which  the  truth  marches  on  over  the  dead 
carcass  of  religious  error. 

To  geology  we  must  ascribe  the  second  great  victory. 
The  Bible  relates,  in  terms  too  unequivocal  to  render  it 
worth  while  to  dispute  about  their  meaning,  that  the  earth 
was  created  in  six  days.  Geology  tells  us,  in  terms  equally 
unequivocal,  that  it  has  been  millions  of  ages  in  forming. 
It  was,  therefore,  simply  a  question  of  veracity  between  an 
old  book  and  the  rocks,  and  again,  by  a  sort  of  tacit  com- 
pulsion, the  world  has  given  in  its  adhesion  to  the  testimony 
of  nature.  True,  the  Church  has  hem'd  and  haw'd,  writhed 


76  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

and  twisted  its  interpretations  to  adapt  them  to  the  new- 
found truth,  but  she  has  been  compelled  to  admit  that, 
whatever  may  be  the  meaning  of  the  language  of  Holy  Writ, 
geology  is  right  anyhow. 

^The  same  facts  which  have  overthrown  the  Hebrew  cos- 
mogony have  also  neutralized  the  chronology  which  the 
wise  ecclesisatical  genealogists  have  compiled  from  the 
sacred  writings.  As  the  former  had  assigned  a  ridiculous 
and  puerile  period  for  the  antiquity  of  the  earth,  so  the 
latter  had  fixed  far  too  narrow  a  limit  for  the  antiquity  of 
man.  This  has  been  reserved  for  a  more  recent  but  equally 
signal  triumph  of  science.  Sir  Charles  Lyell,  one  of  the 
most  eminent  English  geologists,  has  demonstrated  the 
existence  of  man  for  a  period  of  at  least  30,000  years  upon 
the  continent  of  Europe,  and  Professor  Agassiz  declares 
that  he  must  have  inhabited  the  peninsula  of  Florida  for  as 
many  as  ten  thousand  years.  Both  these  authorities  are  too 
great  and  too  conservative  to  be  questioned  or  impugned, 
and  so  we  may  regard  it  settled  that  we  have  long  been  led 
astray  by  our  religious  authorities,  to  be  guided  at  last  to 
the  truth  only  by  the  hand  of  science.  And  this  is  her 
third  great  triumph. 


July,  t87O—J£tat.  29. 

20.    What  Has  Been  Gained?    No.  2 

History. — Written  June  23,  1870.    See  No.   i. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  I,  No.  5,  July,  1870 


THE  honor  of  leading  the  world  to  the  truth  respecting 
the  laws  and  motions  of  the  solar  system,  the 
antiquity  of  the  earth  and  of  man — though  these 
are  vast  in  their  scope  and  in  their  results — is  by  no  means 
all,  and  perhaps  not  the  most  important  to  which  science  is 
justly  entitled  to  lay  claim.  She  has  fought  over  these 
great  fields  and  won  them,  but  she  has  not  ceased  here.  She 
has  only  made  them  her  base  of  operations  for  other  and 
more  signal  victories.  Indeed,  these  victories  must  come, 
if  the  first  are  not  allowed  to  be  given  up.  They  appear 
rather  as  consequences  of  the  first  than  as  distinct  triumphs. 
For  it  was  not  only  the  naked  facts  of  the  solar  system  that 
were  discovered  and  demonstrated;  it  was  also  a  law  ac- 
cording to  which  these  facts  do,  and,  it  seems,  must  take 
place.  It  was,  therefore,  in  physics  that  the  new  truth  was 
to  make  itself  known.  Before  the  dawn  of  scientific 
investigation,  men  could  see  in  the  movements  of  the 
heavenly  bodies  only  a  succession  of  facts.  Things  were 
moving,  and  they  could  not  imagine  that  this  could  be 
unless  somebody  was  moving  them.  Hence  they  peopled 
the  spaces  with  gods,  demons,  and  genii.  Everything  was 
a  miracle.  Even  the  great  Kepler  saw  the  deity  rolling 

77. 


78  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

the  shining  spheres  along  with  a  personal  hand.  Newton 
resolved  their  movements  into  a  few  mechanical  principles, 
but  there  were  still  irregularities,  and  these  he  supposed  the 
deity  to  produce  to  gratify  some  unknown  caprice.  It 
was  left  for  Laplace  to  demonstrate  that  even  these,  down 
to  the  minutest  perturbation  or  aberration,  are  all  subject 
to  the  one  unvarying  law  of  attraction. 

It  is  this  idea  of  law  pervading  the  universe  that  has 
constituted  the  real  weapon  of  all  material  progress;  for  a 
law  is  something  upon  which  we  can  depend  and  base  our 
calculations.  And  it  is  a  remarkable  feature  that  it  was 
not  till  these  great  natural  principles  had  been  settled  that 
anything  of  any  note  was  ever  done  in  the  way  of  sub- 
sidizing nature,  and  making  her  the  servant  instead  of  the 
autocrat  of  the  human  race.  Before  that  time  there  were 
no  mills,  no  factories,  no  machine  shops,  to  say  nothing  of 
steam  and  electrical  applications.  Everything  that  was 
made  must  be  wrought  out  by  the  slow  toil  of  the  hands. 
Nor  is  it  difficult  to  see  the  natural  connection  of  these 
facts.  For  as  long  as  no  law  was  recognized,  but  only  the 
free,  intelligent  will  of  some  being  or  beings  who  controlled 
the  universe,  there  could  be  no  assurance  that  any  mechani- 
cal contrivance  would  long  serve  the  purpose  for  which  it 
was  made.  Who  could  tell  but  that  the  next  morning 
after  it  was  completed  Deity  might  change  his  mind  and 
refuse  to  impel  it.  Besides,  it  was  regarded  as  sacrilege  to 
employ  the  bounteous  power  of  God  for  the  sordid  ends  of 
human  gain.  Hence,  they  were  not  used.  But  science  is 
banishing  these  phantoms  and  demons,  not  only  from  earth, 
but  from  existence.  In  short,  it  has  already,  for  the  intelli- 
gent world,  disenchanted  the  universe,  and  left  it  free  for 
man  to  possess,  use,  and  enjoy.  There  are  no  longer  any 
invisible  gods  or  goddesses,  great  or  small,  to  produce 
nothing,  but  only  consume  the  products  of  his  toil. 

This  discovery  that  we  are  under  a  reign  of  law,  instead 
of  the  special  objects  of  divine  caprice,  is  in  reality  the 
foundation  and  the  necessary  prerequisite  of  all  our  modern 


WHAT  HAS  BEEN  GAINED?  79 

material  civilization.  Recognizing  reliable  principles,  we 
have  proceeded  to  study  and  apply  them,  instead  of  waiting, 
Micawber-like,  forever  for  God  to  turn  something  up  to  our 
advantage.  We  find,  first,  that  we  can  do  it,  and  second, 
that  unless  we  do  do  it,  it  will  never  be  done. 

There  is  still  another  scientific  triumph  which  is  as  great 
for  the  moral  world  as  those  we  have  alluded  to  are  for  the 
physical  world.  It  is  one  of  those  great  incidental  blessings 
which,  though  wholly  unexpected,  often  so  copiously  flow 
from  the  recognition  of  a  great  truth.  The  very  founders 
of  science  little  thought  there  lay  hidden  within  it  the 
germs  of  the  highest  and  purest  morality.  Yet  such  is  the 
fact,  and  men  are  just  beginning  to  recognize  that  through 
science  alone  is  the  very  evil  of  the  world  to  be  removed. 
We  have  not  space  to  elaborate  this  idea,  but  we  appeal  to 
facts.  All  will  admit  that  charity  is  the  highest  moral 
virtue.  Science  is  the  only  foundation  for  that  broad  and 
unlimited  charity,  which,  if  ever  attained,  will  prove  itself 
a  redemption  of  the  world.  Religion,  philosophy,  law, 
government,  all  have  failed  utterly  to  accomplish  this 
result.  Science  so  far  has  proved  a  grand  success.  To  it, 
and  to  it  alone,  can  we  attribute  that  great  change  in  the 
treatment  which  man  receives  at  the  hands  of  his  fellow- 
man,  which  has  taken  place  within  the  last  two  centuries. 
Where  now  is  the  persecution,  the  proscription,  the  torture, 
which  men  were  wont  to  inflict  for  opinion's  sake?  They 
are  gone,  vanished  as  all  evil  will  vanish  under  the  rays  of 
truth.  And  the  tone  of  public  opinion,  religious  and  po- 
litical, is  obviously  becoming  daily  modified  and  softened  as 
the  threats  of  future  torment  for  religious,  and  of  wholesale 
hanging  for  political  opinions,  give  place  to  respect,  charity, 
and  humanity. 

That  these  are  the  results  of  science  is  clear,  for  it  lifts 
us  out  of  the  narrow  grooves  of  bigotry  and  fanaticism,  and 
enables  us  to  comprehend  the  human  race  as  a  part  of  the 
vast  universe  of  which  all  men  are  but  the  children,  and 
therefore  brothers. 


July,  l87O—JEtat.  29. 

21.  The  Bible  vs.  Slavery 

History. — Written  March  31,  1870.  It  was 
reserved  for  a  needed  occasion,  as  one  of  the  things 
that  would  keep. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  I,  No.  5,  July,  1870 


THERE  have  been  many  attempts  to  uphold  slavery 
from  a  Biblical  standpoint,  and  there  have  also 
been  many  attempts  to  overthrow  it  from  the  same 
standpoint.  The  latter  view  has  been  maintained  by 
triumphantly  pointing  to  the  provision  in  the  Hebrew  laws 
for  a  jubilee,  in  which  the  slaves  were  required  to  be  liber- 
ated every  fifty  years.  We  believe  the  idea  almost  univer- 
sally prevails  that  this  was  unconditionally  the  case.  A 
few,  doubtless,  do  know  better,  but  by  a  little  skilful  sup- 
pressio  veri,  they  manage  to  keep  the  laity  in  ignorance. 
The  truth  is  that  this  humane  provision  applied  only  to 
Hebrews,  their  own  countrymen.  Towards  each  other 
they  were  very  just,  and  required  many  good  things  to  be 
observed,  very  much  as,  during  the  reign  of  African  slavery, 
white  men  were  protected  by  the  law  and  permitted  to 
maintain  the  dignity  of  freemen.  But  toward  the  gentile, 
the  stranger  that  sojourned  in  their  land  (which  land, 
by  the  way,  they  had  wrested  from  these  same  strangers 
by  armed  force),  the  case  was  quite  different,  and  may 

80 


THE  BIBLE  VS.  SLAVERY  81 

be  aptly  compared  with  the  case  of  the  negro  in  this 
country.  There  it  was,  "you  must  not  harm  a  Jew,  but 
treat  a  gentile  as  you  please. "  Here  it  was,  "you  must  not 
harm  a  white  man,  but  treat  a  negro  as  you  please. " 

In  order  that  our  readers  may  not  be  ignorant  upon  this 
point,  we  quote  the  44th,  45th,  and  46th  verses  of  the  25th 
chapter  of  Leviticus:  "Both  thy  bond-men  and  thy  bond- 
maids, which  thou  shalt  have,  shall  be  of  the  heathen  that 
are  round  about  you;  of  them  shall  ye  buy  bond-men  and 
bond-maids.  Moreover,  of  the  children  of  the  strangers 
that  do  sojourn  among  you,  of  them  shall  ye  buy,  and  of 
their  families  that  are  with  you,  which  they  begat  in  your 
land;  and  they  shall  be  your  possession;  and  ye  shall  take 
them  as  an  inheritance  for  your  children  after  you,  to  inherit 
them  for  a  possession;  and  they  shall  be  your  bond-men 
forever;  but  over  your  brethren,  the  children  of  Israel,  ye 
shall  not  rule  one  over  another  with  rigor."  If  there  is 
any  jubilee  in  this,  then  we  fail  to  see  where  it  comes  in. 


August,  1870—JEtat.  29. 

22.  Christianity  and  Civilization 

History.— Written  July  31, 1870. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  I,  No.  6,  August,  1870 


IT  is  the  common  boast  that  Christianity  is  the  great 
promoter  of  civilization.  The  chief  argument  em- 
ployed to  demonstrate  this  is,  that  the  highest 
civilization  has  always  been  found  in  those  countries  where 
Christianity  has  prevailed.  In  other  words,  say  they, 
Christianity  has  always  accompanied  advanced  civiliza- 
tion, and  therefore  it  is  the  cause  of  it. 

Both  the  premises  and  therefore  the  conclusion  also  of 
this  argument  are  false.  For,  in  the  first  place,  Christianity 
has  not  always  been  the  concomitant  of  the  highest  civili- 
zation; and  in  the  second  place,  if  it  had,  it  would  not  at 
all  follow  of  necessity  that  it  was  the  cause  of  it. 

With  regard  to  the  first  point,  it  must  be  remembered 
that  Christianity  is  of  comparatively  recent  date.  There 
had  been  many  great  civilizations  in  many  different  coun- 
tries long  before  it  had  an  existence.  If  they  were  less 
brilliant  than  that  of  to-day,  it  was  only  because  man  had 
not  had  so  long  to  learn  how  to  improve  his  condition.  If 
they  were  less  enduring,  it  was  because  the  three  great 
conservators  of  our  civilization — steam,  electricity,  and 
printing — were  not  yet  discovered.  And  surely  their 

82 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  CIVILIZATION         83 

discovery  cannot  be  ascribed  to  Christianity.  But  this  is 
not  all.  The  great  ideal  civilization  of  China  aside,  there 
existed  at  the  advent  of  Christianity  a  civilization  which 
will  ever  continue  to  be  the  glory  of  the  human  race — 
the  civilization  of  Greece  and  Rome.  And  this  was  what  an 
arrogant  Christendom  is  pleased  to  style  a  pagan  age.  And 
yet,  in  all  the  departments  of  art,  literature,  philosophy,  and 
statesmanship,  the  nineteenth  century  is  compelled  to 
humbly  bow  and  acknowledge  its  inferiority.  But  when 
Christianity  arose  and  assumed  control  of  nations,  this 
mighty  and  resplendent  civilization  crumbled  away  and  fell 
to  ruins.  Compare,  for  a  moment,  the  golden  age  of  Pericles 
or  Augustus  with  the  long  and  dreary  period  which  followed 
the  substitution  of  Christian  for  pagan  rule,  and  which 
historians  are  wont  to  call  the  Dark  Ages.  How  would  the 
argument  above  mentioned  apply  to  that  period?  It 
would  prove  directly  the  reverse  of  what  is  claimed  when 
applied  to  this. 

But  with  regard  to  the  second  point,  the  fact  that  civili- 
zation and  Christianity  are  often  found  together  is  no  more 
a  proof  that  the  latter  is  the  cause  of  the  former  than  that 
the  former  is  of  the  latter.  In  point  of  fact  neither  is  true. 
The  co-existence  of  these  institutions  is  a  matter  wholly 
fortuitous.  It  might  as  well  have  been  Mohammedanism  as 
Christianity;  and  had  that  been  the  case,  the  votaries  of 
that  faith  would  have  doubtless  ascribed  their  civilization 
to  it.  Indeed,  Gibbon  has  shown  that  the  mere  fate  of  a 
single  battle  is  what  has  decided  that  very  question — 
whether  Europe  should  be  Christian  or  Mohammedan. 
Had  Charles  Martel  been  defeated  on  the  plains  of  France, 
Christianity  would  have  been  driven  from  Europe,  and 
might  never  have  reached  America.  And  judging  from  the 
wars  and  persecutions  of  Christianity,  it  is  not  probable 
that  it  would  have  been  any  the  worse  for  civilization. 
The  world  thinks  it  must  have  its  religion,  and  it  makes  little 
difference  what  it  is.  The  only  way  to  diminish  its  evil 
is  to  diminish  its  quantity.  Lastly,  so  far  from  Christianity 


84  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

being  the  patron  of  progress,  it  is  notoriously  true  that  the 
minds  upon  which  all  civilization  has  depended  have,  in 
all  countries  and  ages,  been  either  avowed  or  tacit  dissenters 
from  its  leading  doctrines.  Our  civilization  depends 
wholly  upon  the  discovery  and  application  of  a  few  pro- 
found scientific  and  philosophical  principles,  thought  out 
by  a  few  great  minds  who  hold  the  shallow  babble  of  priests 
in  utter  contempt,  and  have  no  time  to  dabble  in  theology. 


August,  l87O—JEtat.  29. 

23.    Religion  and  Progress 

History. — Written  in  August,  1870. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  I,  No.  6,  August,  1870 


A  CRITICAL  historical  investigation  will,  we  think, 
confirm  the  statement  made  by  Lecky  in  his 
History  of  European  Morals — that  as  clerical 
influence  strengthens,  civilization  proportionally  declines, 
and  vice  versa.  The  restoration  of  learning  in  Europe  marks 
the  dawn  of  freethought,  and  the  history  of  the  growth  of 
European  civilization  is  the  history  of  the  gradual  but 
certain  decline  of  the  power  of  the  Church.  We  date  the 
history  of  modern  scepticism  from  the  time  of  Abelard, 
when  Christendom,  convinced  that  nothing  was  to  be 
gained  in  the  attempt  to  wrest  from  the  Mohammedans 
any  portion  of  their  territory,  its  murderous  passion — 
religious  hate — cooled  by  repeated  defeat,  had  entered 
into  commercial,  if  not  amicable  relations  with  Moham- 
medan nations.  This  intercourse,  conjoined  to  the  influence 
of  the  Arabian  science  and  philosophy,  which  was  itself 
calculated  to  incite  rational  investigation,  had  doubtless 
much  effect  upon  the  religious  sentiments  of  Europe. 
Indeed,  Lecky  himself  considers  the  Mohammedan  schools 
of  science  one  of  the  chief  agencies  "in  resuscitating  the 
dormant  energies  of  Christendom. " 

85 


86  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

The  history  of  Europe  during  the  preceding  centuries, 
from  the  establishment  of  Christianity,  with  the  exception 
of  that  of  the  brilliant  civilization  in  Mohammedan  Spain, 
was  a  history  of  priestly  ignorance,  superstition,  and  bar- 
barity. Says  Gibbon,  writing  of  the  decay  of  taste  and 
genius  in  eastern  Europe,  under  Christian  rule:  "In  the 
revolution  of  ten  centuries  not  a  single  discovery  was  made 
to  exalt  the  dignity  or  promote  the  happiness  of  mankind. 
Not  a  single  idea  had  been  added  to  the  speculative  systems 
of  antiquity,  and  a  succession  of  patient  disciples  became, 
in  their  turn,  the  dogmatic  teachers  of  the  next  servile 
generation."  The  arts,  sciences,  philosophy,  and  even  the 
language  of  civilized  "paganism,"  were  either  forgotten, 
almost  obliterated,  or  entirely  lost. 

The  gradual  extension  of  freethought  and  secular  pur- 
suits, and  consequent  growth  of  civilization,  are  matters  of 
historical  record ;  yet  such  had  been  the  deadly  influence  of 
an  unquestioned  ecclesiasticism,  that  even  after  the  power 
of  the  Church  had  been  broken  by  mighty  divisions,  it  has 
required  centuries  to  regain  that  which  had  been  lost  while 
Christianity  held  undisputed  sway.  And  even  now,  in 
those  countries  in  which  a  single  sect  maintains  the  power, 
and  where  freethought  is  comparatively  unknown,  the 
baleful  influence  of  clerical  domination  is  frightfully  ap- 
parent. Rome,  once  the  proud  center  of  a  resplendent 
civilization,  now  abjectly  crouches  at  the  feet  of  a  Christian 
pontiff,  while  the  genius  of  empire  and  civilization,  ever 
accompanying  mental  liberty,  is  enshrined  in  more  "infidel " 
France,  Germany,  England,  and  America. 

After  combatting  innovation  and  improvement  step  by 
step,  and  offering  every  impediment  in  its  power  to  the 
reformer,  the  Christian  priesthood,  Catholic  and  Protestant, 
though  dissenting  on  other  points,  unite  en  masse  in  claim- 
ing the  civilization  of  to-day  to  be  the  result  of  their  dog- 
mas! Reform  has  ever  been  the  enemy  of  priestcraft,  and 
the  more  closely  we  scan  history,  the  more  clearly  it  is  revealed 
that  the  great  leaders  in  all  movements  towards  the  ameliora- 


RELIGION  AND  PROGRESS  87 

tion  of  the  condition  of  the  race  in  science,  philosophy,  or 
invention,  have  either  openly  opposed,  secretly  detested,  or 
entirely  ignored  the  popular  religious  opinions  of  their 
times.  "Experience,"  says  Bacon,  "demonstrates  how 
learned  men  have  been  arch  heretics,  and  how  learned 
times  have  been  inclined  to  Atheism."  We  think 
history  will  bear  out  the  assertion  that  those  periods  of 
time  which  exhibit  a  higher  civilization  than  those  which 
preceded  or  followed  them,  have  always  been  characterized 
by  comparative  exemption  from  ecclesiastical  restraint. 
Freedom  is  essential  to  progress,  and  theological  doctrines 
being  restrictive  of  freedom,  mentally,  could  not  be  other- 
wise than  conservative  or  retrogressive  in  their  influence. 
A  religion  that  holds  forth  a  bundle  of  dogmas,  and 
requires  an  implicit  subscription  to  them  on  pain  of  future 
damnation;  that  marks  out  the  limit  of  human  thought, 
and  declares  "thus  far  shalt  thou  go  and  no  farther";  that 
sets  up,  as  an  infallible  standard  and  guide  to  action,  the 
writings  of  men  who  lived  centuries  ago;  that  devotes  its 
attention  not  to  the  encouragement  of  temporal  employ- 
ments, but  to  the  contemplation  of  a  future  life,  is  one  of 
the  greatest  enemies  of  human  progress,  and  it  should  be 
the  effort  of  every  good  man  feeling  the  force  of  this  fact 
to  labor  for  the  restriction  of  its  deadly  influence. 


September,  t8lO—JEtat.  29. 

24.    The  Polygamy  Discussion 

History. — Written  August  28,  1870. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  I,  No.  7,  September,  1870 


TE  so-called  great  discussion  of  the  question  whether 
the  Bible  sanctions  polygamy  constitutes  one  of 
the  events  of  the  last  month.  Mr.  Cullom's  bill 
called  out  Mr.  Hooper's  speech,  which  in  turn  called  out 
Dr.  Newman's  Washington  sermon.  This  led  to  a  sort  of 
irresponsible,  unofficial  invitation,  in  a  neutral  Salt  Lake 
City  newspaper,  for  him  to  repeat  it  in  the  Mormon  Taber- 
nacle. The  prurient  zeal  of  our  learned  divine  magnified 
this  into  a  veritable  challenge  to  discuss  the  question  with 
the  great  Mormon  Pontiff  himself,  and  he  set  out  on  a 
Quixotic  journey  across  the  continent  for  this  purpose. 

On  his  arrival  the  lion  declined  to  be  bearded,  and  the 
reverend  doctor  set  about  to  force  him  into  the  false  posi- 
tion before  the  country  of  trying  to  back  out.  Knowing 
that  everything  he  said  would  be  believed  throughout  the 
country,  the  adroit  Brigham  turned  him  over  to  a  lesser 
light,  Prof.  Orson  Pratt,  with  whom,  after  much  equivoca- 
tion about  time  and  terms,  in  which  the  doctor,  with  the 
unconcealed  anxiety  of  a  school-boy,  yielded  point  after 
point  rather  than  lose  his  opportunity,  he  was  at  last 
enabled  to  hold  a  three  days'  discussion  in  the  Old  Taber- 

88 


THE  POLYGAMY  DISCUSSION  89 

nacle.  The  arguments  themselves,  as  reported  here,  are 
really  not  worth  mentioning.  Elder  Pratt  certainly  took 
it  very  calmly,  and  from  a  scripture  point  of  view  clearly 
established  his  side  of  the  question  by  showing,  what  every- 
body already  knew,  that  most  of  the  great  and  good  of  the 
patriarchs  practised  polygamy  without  rebuke,  and  that 
the  new  dispensation  was  silent  on  the  subject,  as  it  is 
upon  slavery  and  all  other  real  evils. 

Dr.  Newman  displayed  some  philological  profundity,  in 
which,  however,  the  Elder,  though  in  an  unostentatious 
manner,  clearly  proved  himself  his  equal;  indulged  in 
his  usual  high-keyed  grandiloquence,  which  his  opponent 
scrupulously  avoided,  as  if  to  evince  his  contempt  of  it,  and 
concluded  by  iterating  in  a  pompous  style  the  unestablished 
charge  that  all  polygamists  are  committers  of  adultery. 
The  only  text  he  pretended  to  advance  against  polygamy 
was  the  i8th  verse  of  the  i8th  chapter  of  Leviticus,  which 
reads  thus:  "Neither  shalt  thou  take  a  wife  to  her  sister,11 
etc.,  but  which  the  learned  Doctor  claimed  had  been  trans- 
lated by  some  commentators  to  read,  "Neither  shalt  thou 
take  a  wife  to  another.1'  Pratt  showed  that  the  first 
reading  was  as  correct  as  the  last,  but  that  while  neither  is 
correct,  the  Hebrew  did  not  warrant  the  founding  of  a 
monogamic  doctrine  upon  that  text,  as,  indeed,  the  context 
would  convince  any  candid  mind.  To  this  flimsy  straw 
the  Doctor  clung,  claiming  it  to  be  great  central  law,  and 
declaring,  "  I  will  try  every  passage  by  this  law.' '  His  whole 
effort,  windy  and  verbose  as  it  was,  was,  as  an  argument,  a 
complete  and  unmitigated  failure. 

The  effect  of  the  whole  transaction  will  be  bad.  It  will 
be  bad  for  the  cause,  since  it  opens  the  subject  up  for  dis- 
cussion from  a  theological  standpoint,  which  cannot  but  be 
favorable  to  polygamy;  bad  for  theology,  since  it  will  bring 
it  into  deserved  contempt  before  all  rational  men;  bad  for 
the  Mormons,  since  it  may  tend  to  kindle  the  insane  fires  of 
persecution;  and  bad  for  the  zealous  knight  who  strained 
himself  so  hard  to  consummate  it,  since  it  has  exposed  his 


90  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

real  imbecility,  and  what  is  worse,  his  overweening  self- 
confidence  and  self-conceit. 

The  only  good  it  can  possibly  do  will  be  to  show  the 
country  that  the  Mormons,  base  and  barbarous  as  they 
have  been  misrepresented  to  be,  are  after  all  human  beings, 
having  most  of  the  qualities  that  adorn  or  afflict  the  race, 
and  do  not  differ  in  any  material  respect  from  ourselves. 
They  certainly  displayed  great  liberality  in  accommodating 
the  Doctor  with  a  place  to  blow  off  his  long-pent-up  gas  and 
gratify  his  inordinate  desire  to  acquire  notoriety  as  a 
crusader  against  "the  twin  relic."  The  condition  once 
proposed  to  be  imposed,  that  the  exponent  of  Mormonism 
should  be  allowed  to  expound  from  the  National  M.  E. 
Church  of  Washington,  seems  to  have  been  withdrawn  as 
altogether  too  shocking  to  the  feelings  of  that  civilized 
congregation  and  pastor.  Imagine,  just  once,  the  chaplain 
of  the  United  States  Senate,  and  perhaps  the  President  of 
the  United  States,  sitting  in  that  superb  edifice  under  the 
droppings  of  Mormon  preaching!  Preposterous!  Yet  the 
Tabernacle  was  freely  offered  and  accepted.  How  great  is 
Christian  charity! 

It  need  scarcely  be  added,  as  a  commentary  on  this 
ridiculous  farce,  that  any  attempt  to  attack  or  overthrow 
a  great  social  or  political  evil  by  argument  from  the  Bible 
always  must  and  always  will  prove  utterly  abortive.  It  is 
going  to  the  very  authority  which  is  perpetuating  it,  long 
after  the  enlightened  judgment  of  mankind  has  condemned 
it,  to  find  evidence  to  sustain  that  judgment  against  that 
authority  itself.  It  is  absurd.  The  only  authorities  at  all 
worth  citing  against  polygamy,  or  any  other  evil,  are  the 
authorities  of  reason  and  science.  If  we  could  but  appeal 
to  these,  and  throw  away  the  old  books  which  only  reflect 
the  ignorance  and  error  of  the  dark,  unscientific  ages  in 
which  they  were  written,  we  might  make  some  progress  in 
the  solution  of  these  great  problems  and  the  elimination  of 
the  obstacles  which  lie  in  the  way  of  man's  happiness  and 
welfare.  X. 


November  I,  l87O—JEtat.  29. 

25.    Revealed    Religion    and    Human 
Progress 

History. — Written  Sept.  n  and  13,  1870. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  I,  No.  8,  November  i,  1870 


WE  have  frequently  taken  pains  to  show  in  our 
columns  that  the  thing  which  passes  for  religion 
in  our  day  is  not  all  that  it  is  claimed  to  be. 
We  have  endeavored  to  make  three  points  clear,  viz.: — 
ist.  That  it  is  totally  distinct  from  true  morality;  that 
to  be  good  it  is  not  at  all  necessary  to  be  religious.  2d. 
That  the  truly  great  of  all  ages  have  either  totally  ignored  or 
emphatically  repudiated  it ;  and — 3d.  That  as  professed  to 
be  embodied  in  Christianity,  it  has  no  claim  to  be  regarded 
as  in  the  least  conducive  to  our  high  state  of  civilization. 

We  propose  now  to  go  farther.  We  do  not  hesitate  to 
affirm  that  not  only  is  all  this  true,  but  that  the  influence  of 
what  is  known  as  Revelation  has  always  been  exerted,  and  is 
still  being  exerted  directly  in  opposition  to  the  progress  of 
mankind.  And  this  opposition  is  proportionally  pernicious 
as  we  remove  farther  from  the  age  in  which  this  pretended 
revelation  originated. 

This  can  be  satisfactorily  demonstrated  in  two  ways; 
by  deductive  and  inductive  reasoning — by  an  appeal  either 


92  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

to  logic  or  to  experience.  The  following  is  the  a  priori 
proof. 

No  matter  by  whom  given,  this  law  was  given  to  man 
many  ages  ago,  when  he  was  in  an  ignorant  and  uncivilized 
condition.  It  bears  every  mark  of  having  been  adapted  to 
that  condition.  Human  morals  were  then  low,  and  it  is 
no  more  true  than  it  is  natural  that  the  moral  tone  of  the 
writings  then  bequeathed  to  man  should  be  correspondingly 
low.  This  must  be  granted,  as  we  shall  hereafter  show  by 
reference  to  passages  from  the  Bible  itself.  Once  granted 
what  follows?  Here  is  a  book  containing  a  mass  of  moral 
teachings  which  are  behind  the  age;  precepts  which  long 
and  repeated  trial  has  proved  not  to  be  adapted  to  our 
times,  and  to  be  opposed  to  human  advancement ;  and  yet 
this  book  is  implicitly  believed  by  a  majority  of  the  people 
to  have  been  expressly  dictated  by  God  himself,  for  man's 
guidance  through  all  time.  As  such  it  must  be  obeyed, 
whatsoever  the  immediate  result,  or  however  apparent  it 
may  become  that  that  result  is  injurious.  It  is  thus  that 
this  pretended  revelation  is  resisting  the  current  of  strug- 
gling humanity  as  it  rushes  on  towards  the  goal  of  social 
perfection. 

But  one  of  the  premises  of  this  argument  may  be  disputed 
by  those  who  accept  the  teaching  of  this  professed  inspira- 
tion. They  may  deny  that  it  contains  any  doctrines  whose 
effects,  if  followed,  would  be  prejudicial  to  the  interests  of 
mankind,  or  opposed  to  human  progress.  An  examination 
of  this  premise  will  involve  the  proof  of  our  original  proposi- 
tion by  the  second  method,  as  was  promised  at  the  outset. 
We  may  begin  this  examination  with  the  charge,  hereafter 
to  be  sustained,  that  this  pseudo-revelation  has  been  both 
the  mother  and  the  nurse  of  the  chief  evils  of  human 
society.  And  we  may  here  premise  that  nearly  all  the 
unhappiness  and  misery  of  the  world  is  caused  by  the 
prevalence  of  certain  great,  pernicious,  and  iniquitous 
institutions,  customs,  laws,  and  social  or  political  systems, 
based  upon  correspondingly  prevalent  popular  errors. 


REVEALED  RELIGION  93 

Let  us  begin  with  slavery  as  perhaps  the  worst  system  of 
iniquity  ever  tolerated  by  man.  We  not  only  find  it  pre- 
vailing in  its  worst  form  among  the  patriarchs  of  the  Old 
Testament,  but  we  also  find  it  expressly  enjoined  and 
commanded  in  the  law  of  Moses,  in  the  most  unlimited 
sense  and  the  most  unqualified  language.  (Leviticus  xxv., 
44-6.)  And  every  American  knows  with  what  zeal  and 
success  the  advocates  of  that  institution  in  this  country 
appealed  to  the  sacred  page  against  the  spontaneous  in- 
dignation of  an  enlightened  public  judgment.  The  Bible 
was  the  "bulwark  of  slavery"  both  in  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments. 

Another  of  the  great  evils  of  the  world  has  been  the 
oppression  of  despotic  governments.  And  yet  this  is  not 
only  sanctioned  by  the  Bible  but  expressly  declared  a  divine 
ordinance.  "The  powers  that  be  are  ordained  of  God." 
Who  shall  say  how  much  mankind  has  suffered,  which  it 
would  never  have  suffered  had  not  this  fatal  sentence  been 
found  in  the  sacred  writings?  How  long  has  the  progress 
of  the  world  been  held  back  in  Europe  by  kings  and  poten- 
tates claiming  tenure  by  "divine  right? " 

Religious  war  has  been  another  great  obstacle  to  man's 
advancement.  Nearly  every  war  since  those  of  Caesar  has 
been  of  this  character.  As  Christianity  acquired  power  it 
sought  to  extend  its  sway  and  convert  the  rest  of  the  nations 
to  its  faith.  The  horrible  effects  of  this  system  can  only 
be  appreciated  by  a  perusal  of  the  history  of  these  events. 
Not  to  speak  of  the  great  Crusades,  take  the  Thirty  Year's 
War  as  an  illustration,  in  which,  says  the  historian,  "more 
than  ten  millions  of  human  beings  were  sacrificed."  Such 
scenes  have  marked  every  period  of  Christian  supremacy. 
Abundance  of  authority,  both  of  law  and  precedent,  is  found 
for  these  wars  in  the  Bible.  The  Hebrew  conquest  of 
Canaan  affords  examples  of  cruelty  and  slaughter  which 
no  imitator  of  Joshua  has  ever  had  the  heart  to  equal,  and 
this  general  only  obeyed  the  commands  of  his  superior, 
Jehovah.  And  Christ,  whom  his  followers  call  the  "  Prince 


94  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

of  Peace, "  has  declared  (Matt,  x.,  34)  "I  came  not  to  send 
peace,  but  a  sword, "  and  (Luke  vii.,  49)  "  I  am  come  to  send 
fire  on  the  earth." 

But  the  limits  of  our  sheet  forbid  an  extended  illustration 
of  the  many  institutions  and  practices  opposed  to  human 
progress  which  the  accepted  religious  authority  of  Chris- 
tendom enjoins,  sanctions,  or  justifies,  and  which  have  been 
only  kept  up  as  they  have  because  this  is  so.  We  shall  be 
compelled  therefore  to  content  ourselves  with  little  more 
than  the  bare  enumeration  of  a  few  others  which  we  con- 
ceive clearly  to  come  under  this  category. 

Witchcraft,  which  everybody  now  considers  a  foolish 
superstition,  but  which  possesses  a  bloody  and  terrible 
history,  is  expressly  recognized  in  the  Bible  and  the  death 
penalty  enacted  as  a  punishment  of  witches  by  the  law  of 
Moses  (Exodus  xxii,  18),  "Thou  shalt  not  suffer  a  witch  to 
live."  Many  millions  of  innocent  human  beings  have 
suffered  the  extreme  penalty  of  this  statute.  Computations 
of  the  number  of  victims  of  witchcraft  have  been  made, 
the  most  reliable  of  which  place  it  between  nine  and  ten 
millions. 

Capital  punishment  is  now  regarded  as  a  great  moral 
wrong  by  all  humanitarians,  and  would  doubtless  have 
long  since  vanished  from  among  men  but  for  the  command, 
''Whosoever  sheddeth  man's  blood  by  man  shall  his  blood 
be  shed." 

The  terrible  evil  of  intemperance  finds  much  consolation 
in  Scripture  and  very  little  condemnation. 

Very  strong  arguments  for  polygamy  and  concubinage  can 
be  deduced  from  the  lives  of  the  most  holy  of  the  patriarchs, 
while  St.  Paul  expresses  a  strong  predilection  for  the  celibate 
condition.  Both  these  facts  have  done  harm,  as  Mormon 
tabernacles  on  the  one  hand  and  Catholic  nunneries  on  the 
other  clearly  proclaim.  The  most  religious  peoples  of  the 
Old  World  are  being  turned  into  gangs  of  trained  mendi- 
cants as  the  natural  result  of  the  strong  injunctions  in  the 
Bible  to  give  alms.  And  thus  it  is  that  great  social  evils 


REVEALED  RELIGION  95 

are  born  and  nursed  until  they  threaten  the  very  foundations 
of  society  and  stop  the  wheels  of  progress.  The  most 
prolific  source  of  these  social  diseases  in  the  world  is  this 
same  pretended  book  of  Revelation. 


November  I,  l87O—JEtat.  29. 

26.    The  New  Faith 

History. — Written  Oct.  24  and  25,  1870. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  I,  No.  8,  November  i,  1870 


Mr.  Editor:  Has  it  occurred  to  you  that  the  civilized 
world  is  to-day  in  the  very  act  of  changing  its  faith ;  that  a 
new  religion  is  already  crowding  out  Christianity  ?  Nothing 
seems  to  me  clearer.  Men  seldom  discover  such  facts  till 
they  can  look  back  at  them.  Why  do  they  not  learn  to 
see  them  while  in  process  of  accomplishment?  What  are 
the  signs  of  the  times  to-day?  I  go  to  church  in  the  great 
sanctuaries  of  Christendom  and  I  behold  a  display  of  wealth 
in  frescoed  walls  and  fine  architecture,  but  I  find  them  only 
slimly  filled  with  indifferent  people.  Unless  it  be  where 
some  notable,  some  great  public  man  is  accustomed  to 
attend  church,  an  array  of  empty  seats  is  sure  to  greet  me, 
which  would  be  considered  as  an  evidence  of  lingering  death 
to  any  but  a  Christian  cause.  And  those  who  are  there 
come  evidently  from  no  motive  of  zeal  or  devotion.  If  I 
may  judge  from  my  own  neighbors  I  may  safely  say  that 
there  are  but  three  incentives  to  church  going,  namely: 
first,  respectability,  or  obedience  to  custom  or  fashion; 
second,  display,  to  show  their  fine  clothes;  third,  gossip,  to 
see  who  is  there  and  what  they  have  on,  for  the  purpose  of 
telling  about  it.  The  sermons  one  hears  correspond  with 

96 


THE  NEW  FAITH  97 

the  interest  manifested  in  them.  One  does  not  even  need 
to  know  the  text  to  know  what  will  be  said.  These  are 
some  of  the  many  manifest  indications  of  the  moribund 
state  of  the  present  religion.  Nothing  is  left  of  it  but  the 
wealth  it  hoarded  in  the  days  of  its  prosperity.  We  may 
well  call  it  Ichabod,  for  its  glory  has  departed. 

But  what  is  to  take  its  place? 

I  answer  without  a  moment's  hesitation — Spiritualism. 
And  when  I  say  this  I  say  it  with  all  the  consideration  which 
so  positive  an  assertion  demands.  I  say  it  without  the 
least  feeling  pro  or  con,  but  actuated  solely  by  the  truth  as 
it  is  made  manifest  to  my  reason.  It  is  not  that  I  fear  it, 
for  it  cannot  be  worse  than  the  effete  theology,  whose 
place  it  is  to  take.  Neither  do  I  hope  it,  for  if  I  were  to 
hope,  I  would  hope  that  the  world  might  be  spared  another 
reign  of  religion  before  the  dawn  of  that  era  so  certain  to 
come,  when  the  good,  the  happiness,  and  the  intellectual 
and  moral  improvement  of  mankind  shall  absorb  all  human 
energy  and  devotion.  But  I  see  that  it  is  not  yet  ripe  for 
this  change.  It  is  not  ready  to  descend  to  the  sober  realities 
of  this  life,  and  exhaust  its  efforts  in  the  direction  of  its 
amelioration.  It  is  evident  now  that  poor  suffering  human- 
ity must  go  on  for  another  cycle  in  its  misery;  that  its  mind 
and  body  must  continue  on  through  another  long  era  in 
something  like  its  present  state  of  neglect  and  imperfection, 
while  the  imagination  soars  amid  visions  of  future  existence; 
that  reason  must  for  another  great  period  bow  to  the  sceptre 
of  faith ;  that  human  desire  must  long  remain  more  powerful 
than  evidence  or  demonstration.  Not  that  I  would  deny 
man  immortality,  but  it  is  clear  that  if  he  is  immortal  there 
could  be  at  least  nothing  to  lose  if  not  much  to  gain  by 
perfecting  the  present  existence. 

But  what  are  the  evidences  that  the  religion  of  spirit- 
ualism is  the  coming  faith? 

They  are  abundant.  No  contrast  can  be  greater  than 
that  between  the  apathy  of  Christianity  and  the  interest  for 
Spiritualism.  The  lecture  halls  and  lyceums  of  the  Spirit- 


98  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

ualists  are  filled  to  overflowing,  and  thousands  of  the  Ortho- 
dox laity  and  clergy  are  rallying  to  the  new  creed.  Already, 
with  the  genuine  religious  spirit,  they  are  counting  their 
proselytes  and  using  every  effort,  without  regard  to  dignity 
or  even  decency,  to  bring  them  into  their  fold.  The  age 
is  ripe  for  this  kind  of  a  harvest.  Intent  on  living  forever, 
a  dogma  of  the  old  theology,  which,  if  not  demonstrable 
is  not  at  least  refutable,  yet  tired  of  the  illogical  doctrines 
of  atonement,  conversion,  trinity,  election,  sanctification, 
etc.,  they  rush  with  eagerness  into  the  arms  of  a  faith,  which, 
while  it  ignores  the  latter  is  pre-eminently  founded  upon  the 
former. 

These,  Mr.  Editor,  are  some  of  the  influences  which  are  at 
work  to-day  to  usher  in  the  new  religion;  the  religion  of 
Spiritualism.  X. 


November  I,  l87O—J£tat.  29. 

27.    What  Is  the  Positive  Philosophy? 

History. — Written  and  extract  made  in  October, 
1870.  I  had  been  reading  Mill's  little  book  at 
that  time  and  had  already  become  impressed  with 
Comte's  method. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  I,  No.  8,  November  i,  1870 


MUCH  is  said  of  late  concerning  the  new  school  of 
philosophy  which  is  called  Positive,  yet  the 
exact  character  of  that  philosophy  is,  we  appre- 
hend, very  vaguely  and  indefinitely  understood  by  the 
masses  of  the  people.  That  it  is  anti-theological  in  its 
tendency  all  who  know  aught  of  it  are  aware,  but  further 
than  this  no  one  who  has  not  taken  special  pains  to  read  its 
history  and  the  treatises  of  its  most  celebrated  expounders 
can  at  this  time  form  any  correct  idea,  owing  to  the  pains 
which  the  theological  world  is  taking  to  cast  odium  and 
reproach  upon  it.  In  this  state  of  things  any  light  is  wel- 
come to  the  inquiring  spirit  of  the  age,  and  we  offer,  with 
this  view,  a  few  brief  extracts  from  the  little  work  of  Mr. 
John  Stuart  Mill,  entitled  Auguste  Comte  and  Positivism. 
We  have  taken  care  to  make  them  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
render  the  exposition  at  once  short,  clear,  and  reliable,  and 
to  open  up  the  whole  subject  as  completely  as  possible. 

99 


ioo  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

We  would,  however,  recommend  our  readers  to  obtain  this 
valuable  little  work  and  read  it  for  themselves. 

"The  fundamental  doctrine  of  a  true  philosophy,  accord- 
ing to  M.  Comte,  and  the  character  by  which  he  defines 
Positive  Philosophy,  is  the  following :  We  have  no  knowl- 
edge of  anything  but  Phenomena,  and  our  knowledge  of 
phenomena  is  relative,  not  absolute.  We  know  not  the 
essence,  nor  the  real  mode  of  production,  of  any  fact,  but 
only  its  relations  to  other  facts  in  the  way  of  succession  or 
similitude.  These  relations  are  constant;  that  is,  always 
the  same  in  the  same  circumstances.  The  constant  re- 
semblances which  link  phenomena  together,  and  the 
constant  sequences  which  unite  them  as  antecedent  and 
consequent,  are  termed  their  laws.  The  laws  of  phenomena 
are  all  we  know  respecting  them.  Their  essential  nature 
and  their  ultimate  causes,  either  efficient  or  final,  are  un- 
known and  inscrutable  to  us. 

"The  modes  of  philosophizing  which,  according  to  him, 
dispute  ascendancy  with  the  Positive,  are  two  in  number, 
both  of  them  anterior  to  it  in  date:  the  Theological  and  the 
Metaphysical.  The  Theological,  which  is  the  original  and 
spontaneous  form  of  thought,  regards  the  facts  of  the  uni- 
verse as  governed  not  by  invariable  laws  of  sequence,  but 
by  single  and  direct  volitions,  real  or  imaginary,  possessed 
of  life  and  intelligence.  In  the  infantile  state  of  reason  and 
experience,  individual  objects  are  looked  upon  as  animated. 
The  next  step  is  the  conception  of  invisible  beings,  each  of 
whom  superintends  and  governs  an  entire  class  of  objects  or 
events.  The  last  merges  this  multitude  of  divinities  in  a 
single  God,  who  made  the  whole  universe  in  the  beginning, 
and  guides  and  carries  on  its  phenomena  by  his  continued 
action,  or  as  others  think,  only  modifies  them  from  time  to 
time  by  special  interferences. 

"The  mode  of  thought  which  M.  Comte  terms  Meta- 
physical accounts  for  phenomena  by  ascribing  them,  not  to 
volitions  either  sublunary  or  celestial,  but  to  realized 
abstractions.  In  this  stage  it  is  no  longer  a  god  that  causes 


WHAT  IS  THE  POSITIVE  PHILOSOPHY?     101 

and  directs  each  of  the  various  agencies  of  nature;  it  is  a 
power,  or  a  force,  or  an  occult  quality,  considered  as  real 
existences,  inherent  in  but  distinct  from  the  concrete  bodies 
in  which  they  reside,  and  which  they,  in  a  manner,  animate. 
Instead  of  Dryads  presiding  over  trees,  producing  and 
regulating  their  phenomena,  every  plant  or  animal  has  now 
a  Vegetative  Soul.  At  a  later  period  the  Vegetative  Soul 
has  become  a  Plastic  Force,  and  still  later  a  Vital  Principle. 
Objects  now  do  all  that  they  do  because  it  is  their  Essence 
to  do  so,  or  by  reason  of  an  inherent  virtue. 

"This  general  theorem  is  completed  by  the  addition  that 
the  theological  mode  of  thought  has  three  stages :  Fetishism, 
Polytheism,  and  Monotheism;  the  successive  transitions 
being  prepared,  and  indeed  caused,  by  the  gradual  uprising 
of  the  two  rival  modes  of  thought,  the  metaphysical  and 
the  positive,  and  in  their  turn  preparing  the  way  for  the 
ascendancy  of  these,  first  and  temporarily  of  the  meta- 
physical, finally  of  the  positive. 

"The  [Positive]  doctrine  condemns  all  theological  ex- 
planations, and  replaces  them,  or  thinks  them  destined  to 
be  replaced,  by  theories  which  take  no  account  of  anything 
but  an  ascertained  order  of  phenomena.  It  is  inferred  that 
if  this  change  were  completely  accomplished,  mankind  would 
cease  to  refer  the  constitution  of  Nature  to  an  intelligent 
will,  or  to  believe  at  all  in  a  Creator  and  Supreme  Governor 
of  the  world. 

"Positive  Philosophy  maintains  that  within  the  existing 
order  of  the  universe,  or  rather  of  the  part  of  it  known  to  us, 
the  direct  determining  cause  of  every  phenomenon  is  not 
supernatural  but  natural.  Whoever  regards  all  events 
as  parts  of  a  constant  order,  each  one  being  the  invariable 
consequent  of  some  antecedent  condition  or  combination 
of  conditions,  accepts  fully  the  Positive  mode  of  thought. " 


November  15,  1870—JEtat.  29. 

28.    Religious  Influence  of  Science 

History. — Preliminary  paragraph  written  and 
selection  copied  from  Spencer's  Education  in 
November,  1870. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  I,  No.  9,  November  15, 1870 


TE  following  views  of  Herbert  Spencer,  taken  from 
his  volume  on  Education,  with  respect  to  the  reli- 
gious influence  of  Science,  will  be  admitted  to  be 
powerful  and  convincing.     The  religion  of  which  he  speaks 
is  not  "the  superstitions  that  pass  under  the  name  of  religion, " 
and  for  anything  here  indicated  it  may  be  as  John  Stuart 
Mill  says  of  Auguste  Comte's,  "a  religion  without  a  God." 
It  is  the  religion  of  Science,  of  Nature,  of  Truth : 

"Lastly  we  have  to  assert — and  the  assertion  will,  we 
doubt  not,  cause  extreme  surprise — that  the  discipline  of 
science  is  superior  to  that  of  our  ordinary  education, 
because  of  the  religious  culture  that  it  gives.  Of  course  we 
do  not  here  use  the  words  scientific  and  religious  in  their 
ordinary  limited  acceptations;  but  in  their  widest  and 
highest  acceptations.  Doubtless,  to  the  superstitions  that 
pass  under  the  name  of  religion,  science  is  antagonistic; 
but  not  to  the  essential  religion  which  these  superstitions 
merely  hide.  Doubtless,  too,  in  much  of  the  science  that  is 

102 


RELIGIOUS  INFLUENCE  OF  SCIENCE      103 

current,  there  is  a  pervading  spirit  of  irreligion;  but  not  in 
that  true  science  which  has  passed  beyond  the  superficial 
into  the  profound. 

"  True  science  and  true  religion  [says  Professor  Huxley,  at  the  close 
of  a  recent  course  of  lectures]  are  twin-sisters,  and  the  separation  of 
either  from  the  other  is  sure  to  prove  the  death  of  both.  Science  pros- 
pers exactly  in  proportion  as  it  is  religious;  and  religion  flourishes  in 
exact  proportion  to  the  scientific  depth  and  firmness  of  its  basis.  The 
great  deeds  of  philosophers  have  been  less  the  fruit  of  their  intellect 
than  of  the  direction  of  that  intellect  by  an  eminently  religious  tone  of 
mind.  Truth  has  yielded  herself  rather  to  their  patience,  their  love, 
their  single-heartedness,  and  their  self-denial,  than  to  their  logical 
acumen. 

"So  far  from  science  being  irreligious,  as  many  think,  it  is 
the  neglect  of  science  that  is  irreligious — it  is  the  refusal  to 
study  the  surrounding  creation  that  is  irreligious.  Take 
an  humble  simile.  Suppose  a  writer  were  daily  saluted  with 
praises  couched  in  superlative  language.  Suppose  the 
wisdom,  the  grandeur,  the  beauty  of  his  works,  were  the 
constant  topics  of  the  eulogies  addressed  to  him.  Suppose 
those  who  unceasingly  uttered  these  eulogies  on  his  works 
were  content  with  looking  at  the  outsides  of  them ;  and  had 
never  opened  them,  much  less  tried  to  understand  them. 
What  value  should  we  put  upon  their  praises?  What  should 
we  think  of  their  sincerity?  Yet,  comparing  small  things 
to  great,  such  is  the  conduct  of  mankind  in  general,  in 
reference  to  the  Universe  and  its  Cause.  Nay,  it  is  worse. 
Not  only  do  they  pass  by  without  study,  these  things  which 
they  daily  proclaim  to  be  so  wonderful ;  but  very  frequently 
they  condemn  as  mere  triflers  those  who  give  time  to  the 
observation  of  Nature — they  actually  scorn  those  who  show 
any  active  interest  in  these  marvels.  We  repeat,  then,  that 
not  science,  but  the  neglect  of  science,  is  irreligious.  De- 
votion to  science  is  a  tacit  worship — a  tacit  recognition  of 
worth  in  the  things  studied;  and  by  implication  in  their 
Cause.  It  is  not  a  mere  lip-homage,  but  a  homage  ex- 
pressed in  actions — not  a  mere  professed  respect,  but  a  re- 
spect proved  by  the  sacrifice  of  time,  thought,  and  labor. 


104  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

"Nor  is  it  thus  only  that  true  science  is  essentially  reli- 
gious. It  is  religious  too,  inasmuch  as  it  generates  a 
profound  respect  for,  and  an  implicit  faith  in,  those  uniform 
laws  which  underlie  all  things.  By  accumulated  experiences 
the  man  of  science  acquires  a  thorough  belief  in  the  unchang- 
ing relations  of  phenomena — in  the  invariable  connection 
of  cause  and  consequence — in  the  necessity  of  good  or  evil 
results.  Instead  of  the  rewards  and  punishments  of  tradi- 
tional belief,  which  men  vaguely  hope  they  may  gain,  or 
escape,  spite  of  their  disobedience,  he  finds  that  there  are 
rewards  and  punishments  in  the  ordained  constitution  of 
things,  and  that  the  evil  results  of  disobedience  are  in- 
evitable. He  sees  that  the  laws  to  which  we  must  submit 
are  not  only  inexorable  but  beneficent.  He  sees  that  in 
virtue  of  these  laws,  the  process  of  things  is  ever  towards  a 
greater  perfection  and  a  higher  happiness.  Hence  he  is 
led  constantly  to  insist  on  these  laws,  and  is  indignant  when 
men  disregard  them.  And  thus  does  he,  by  asserting  the 
eternal  principles  of  things  and  the  necessity  of  conforming 
to  them,  prove  himself  intrinsically  religious 

"To  all  which  add  the  further  religious  aspect  of  science, 
that  it  alone  can  give  us  true  conceptions  of  ourselves  and 
our  relation  to  the  mysteries  of  existence.  At  the  same 
time  that  it  shows  us  all  which  can  be  known,  it  shows  us 
the  limits  beyond  which  we  can  know  nothing.  Not  by 
dogmatic  assertion  does  it  teach  the  impossibility  of  com- 
prehending the  ultimate  cause  of  things;  but  it  leads  us 
clearly  to  recognize  this  impossibility  by  bringing  us  in 
every  direction  to  boundaries  we  cannot  cross.  It  realizes 
to  us  in  a  way  which  nothing  else  can,  the  littleness  of 
human  intelligence  in  the  face  of  that  which  transcends 
human  intelligence.  While  towards  the  traditions  and 
authorities  of  men  its  attitude  may  be  proud,  before  the 
impenetrable  veil  which  hides  the  Absolute  its  attitude  is 
humble — a  true  pride  and  a  true  humility.  Only  the  sincere 
man  of  science  (and  by  this  title  we  do  not  mean  the  mere 
calculator  of  distances,  or  analyser  of  compounds,  or  labeller 


RELIGIOUS  INFLUENCE  OF  SCIENCE      105 

of  species ;  but  him  who  through  lower  truths  seeks  higher, 
and  eventually  the  highest) — only  the  genuine  man  of 
science,  we  say,  can  truly  know  how  utterly  beyond,  not 
only  human  knowledge  but  human  conception,  is  the  Uni- 
versal Power  of  which  Nature,  and  Life,  and  Thought  are 
manifestations. 

"We  conclude,  then,  that  for  discipline,  as  well  as  for 
guidance,  science  is  of  chiefest  value.  In  all  its  effects, 
learning  the  meanings  of  things,  is  better  than  learning  the 
meanings  of  words.  Whether  for  intellectual,  moral,  or 
religious  training,  the  study  of  surrounding  phenomena  is 
immensely  superior  to  the  study  of  grammars  and  lexicons." 


November   IS,    I87O    JEtat.  29. 

29.    Doctrinal  Sketches 
[No.  1]  Creation 

History. — This  was  the  first  of  a  series  of  com- 
munications denominated  "Doctrinal  Sketches." 
They  were  quasi-serious,  but  in  reality  veiled 
satires.  It  was  perhaps  my  first  attempt  to  write 
humor.  Written  Nov.  I  and  6,  1870. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  I,  No.  9,  November  15, 1870. 


Mr.  Editor:  You  asked  me  to  write  a  series  of  satires 
on  the  Doctrines  of  the  Theology  of  the  Nineteenth  Cen- 
tury. This  I  must  decline  for  many  reasons:  for  in  the 
first  place  I  should  prove  a  very  indifferent  successor  of 
Juvenal  or  Perseus,  and  I  have  not  yet  learned  the  art  of 
subsidizing  my  orthography  and  syntax,  as  is  the  custom 
of  modern  satirists. 

Fortunately,  however,  the  subject  you  have  assigned  me 
can  better  be  treated  seriously.  I  think  no  assistance  that 
wit  or  humor  could  render  would  add  to  the  ludicrousness  of 
these  doctrines  when  stated  in  a  plain,  truthful,  and  his- 
torical way.  Believing  this,  and  with  your  permission,  I 
will  endeavor  to  present  in  this  manner  a  few  statements  of 
the  leading  doctrines  of  the  present  theological  system,  for 

106 


DOCTRINAL  SKETCHES.    CREATION       107 

insertion  from  month  to  month  in  the  ICONOCLAST  ;  taking 
them  up  in  such  order  as  I  deem  best  calculated  to  render 
them  intelligible.  That  order  will  have  to  be,  at  first  at 
least,  chronological,  and  I  shall  be  obliged  to  begin  with 
the  "beginning"  and  explain  the 

CREATION 

It  will  be  observed  that  some  things,  as  in  all  historical 
narratives,  must  be  taken  for  granted,  while  others  must  be 
left  unaccounted  for.  For  though,  "in  the  beginning  God 
created  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  "we  are  still  ignorant  how 
God  could  have  been  created  or  could  have  existed  before 
the  "beginning;"  and  yet  we  must  take  it  for  granted  that 
such  was  the  case,  since  he  evidently  did  not  create  himself 
simultaneously  with  "the  heavens  and  the  earth." 

"  The  heavens  and  the  earth  "  were  created  out  of  nothing. 
This  is  the  primary  sense  of  the  word  create.  The  historian 
Moses  makes  no  mention  of  the  previous  existence  of  any- 
thing, neither  does  he  tell  us  that  the  universe  was  an  emana- 
tion from  God.  It  must,  therefore,  have  been  created  from 
nothing. 

Differing  from  all  other  Bibles,  as  those  of  India,  China, 
Assyria,  Persia,  and  Egypt,  whose  authors  were  philosophers, 
and  therefore  incapable  of  conceiving  this  notion,  and  which 
all,  without  exception,  discard  creation  and  make  the  uni- 
verse the  result  of  a  process  of  evolution  from  the  Supreme 
Being,  in  whom  all  things  were  conceived  to  have  always 
been  contained,  the  Jewish  Bible,  whose  author  was  no 
philosopher  but  only  a  historian,  employs  the  term  creation 
in  its  true  and  original  sense:  the  absolute  bringing  into 
existence  of  what  previously  had  no  existence.  The 
completion  of  this  work  required  six  days.  The  first  day's 
work  was  the  creation  of  light.  What  this  light  was  we 
are  of  course  ignorant,  and  the  time  when  He  took  it  away 
from  us  is  nowhere  stated,  though  He  must  have  done  so  at 
an  early  period,  since  all  the  light  we  have  ever  had  since 


108  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

human  history  began  is  that  of  the  sun  (of  which  all  arti- 
ficial light  is  only  a  latent  form),  and  the  sun  was  not  created 
till  the  fourth  day. 

The  second  day  was  devoted  to  the  creation  of  a  firma- 
ment. This  firmament  was  placed  between  the  waters, 
dividing  those  which  were  under  from  those  which  were 
above  it.  We  must  conclude,  therefore,  that  under  the 
earth  (which  is  the  lowest  part  of  the  firmament)  there  is  an 
abyss  of  water,  and  also  that  above  the  stars  there  is 
another  expanse  of  water,  doubtless  that  which  we  see  so 
blue  and  incorrectly  term  the  "sky."  The  firmament  He 
called  heaven,  and  since  the  good  go  to  heaven  when  they 
die  it  is  possible  that  they  may  not  rise  much  above  the 
terrestial  stratum. 

The  third  day  was  consumed  in  fixing  up  the  physical 
map  of  the  world,  i.e.  Assyria,  Asia  Minor,  and  Egypt,  and 
getting  the  vegetable  kingdom  started.  Having  no  sun 
yet  we  are  of  course  ignorant  of  the  substitute  employed 
for  sunshine,  which  modern  biologists  and  chemists  tell  us 
is  so  indispensable  to  the  existence  of  plants. 

It  was  not  till  the  fourth  day  that  God  saw  the  necessity 
of  having  lights  in  the  firmament.  The  historian  states  the 
purposes  for  which  these  lights  were  required  to  be  the 
following: 

First.     "  To  divide  the  day  from  the  night. " 

Second.     ' '  For  signs. ' ' 

Third.     "For  seasons." 

Fourth.     "  For  days  and  years. " 

Fifth.     For  ' '  lights  to  give  light  upon  the  earth. " 

It  will  be  observed  that  these  objects  all  refer  to  the 
condition  of  the  earth,  and  therefore  all  those  who  have 
indulged  the  irreverent  belief  that  these  lights  (the  sun, 
moon,  and  stars)  were  created  with  a  view  to  any  subjec- 
tive or  independent  purpose  of  their  own  must  be  wholly 
mistaken. 

So  "God  made  two  great  lights;  the  greater  light  to  rule 
the  day  and  the  lesser  light  to  rule  the  night ;  He  made  the 


DOCTRINAL  SKETCHES.     CREATION       109 

stars  also,  and  set  them  in  the  firmament  to  give  light  upon  the 
earth. "  This  ended  His  fourth  day's  work.  What  became 
of  the  original  light  created  on  the  first  day  is  not  stated. 

On  the  fifth  day  he  produced  all  the  animal  kingdom 
except  man,  if  indeed  man  can  be  classed  among  animals. 

The  sixth  and  last  day  was  crowned  with  the  creation  of 
man,  whom  he  created  in  his  own  image — probably  the 
same  shape — and  gave  him  dominion  over  everything  He 
had  made.  As  all  the  animals  had  been  created  of  both 
sexes,  so  was  man.  The  process  by  which  woman  was 
created  is  detailed  in  the  second  chapter  of  Genesis.  He 
caused  Adam,  the  man  He  had  made,  to  fall  into  a  deep 
sleep,  and  then  took  out  one  of  his  ribs  and  "made  a 
woman."  Moses  has  not  informed  us  whether  this  was 
the  process  by  which  the  female  of  all  species  of  animals 
was  produced. 

There  are  three  mysteries  enveloping  this  account  which 
it  would  be  sacrilege  to  hope  ever  to  see  solved : 

First.     The  process  of  making  a  rib  into  a  woman. 

Second.  The  necessity  for  any  such  proceeding — as  if 
it  were  more  difficult  to  make  a  woman  than  a  man. 

Third.  Why  the  women  of  our  day  do  not  have  more 
ribs  than  men. 

My  next  sketch  will  be  an  account  of  the  Fall  of  Man. 


December  I,  l87O—J£tat.  29. 

30.    The  Rising  School 

History. — Written  Nov.  16-18,  1870.  It  is  as 
fair  a  statement  of  the  character  of  scientific  phi- 
losophy as  I  could  write  to-day.  I  was  steeped  in 
the  old  philosophy,  and  if  education  could  have 
influenced  me  I  should  have  been  a  follower  of 
Sir  Wm.  Hamilton.  But  I  was  wholly  unsatisfied 
with  it,  and  fairly  panting  for  a  fresh  breath  of 
science. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  I,  No.  10,  December  i,  1870. 


TE  age  of  speculation  has  gone  by.  The  age  of 
investigation  has  begun.  The  philosophies  of  the 
past  have  at  last  culminated  in  a  system  which, 
while  it  still  retains  the  name  philosophy,  is  in  truth,  science. 
The  Ionian  and  the  Eleatic  schools  of  philosophy,  the  great 
Platonic  and  Peripatetic  schemes,  the  religio-philosophical 
scholasticism  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  the  grand  metaphys- 
ical systems  of  modern  Europe,  have  all  passed  away,  and 
the  myriad  volumes  of  their  profound  elaboration  lie  mould- 
ing upon  the  shelves  of  our  libraries.  Thales  and  Pythagoras, 
Plato  and  Aristotle,  Aquinas  and  Descartes,  have  all  in  turn 
shed  their  lustre  upon  the  world,  and  left  to  it  monuments 
which  stand  as  true  representatives  of  the  condition  of  the 
human  mind  at  the  respective  epochs  in  which  they  figured. 

no 


THE  RISING  SCHOOL  m 

But  they  are  monuments  only.  They  are  no  longer  finger- 
posts. They  are  no  longer  authority.  All  these  schools 
of  philosophers  are  extinct.  There  is  none  to  revive  them 
— none  to  mourn  their  loss.  The  profound  disquisitions  of 
Sir  William  Hamilton  must  be  regarded  as  their  last  triumph 
for  all  time;  while  the  vigorous  but  unsuccessful  effort  of 
Cousin  to  extract  from  their  vast  accumulations  an  eclecti- 
cism adequate  to  the  demands  of  the  Nineteenth  Century 
affords  ample  proof  that  the  world  has  outstripped  them 
in  its  march  and  left  them  behind  it  to  take  their  places 
among  the  relics  of  antiquity. 

The  rising  school  of  philosophy,  as  distinguished  from 
practical  scientific  labor,  and  the  one  which  may  be  said 
to  have  already  succeeded  the  French,  German,  and  Scot- 
tish schools  of  metaphysics,  is  that  which  for  want  of  a 
better  name  is  styled  the  Positive.  Deriving  its  principles 
from  the  teachings  of  Bacon,  Galileo,  Newton,  Franklin, 
and  Humboldt,  it  had  an  illustrious  founder  in  Auguste 
Comte,  and  is  to-day  illuminated  and  adorned  by  the  intel- 
lects of  John  Stuart  Mill  and  Herbert  Spencer.  Darwin, 
Buckle,  and  Lyell  labored  in  its  ranks,  as  do  now  Huxley, 
Tyndall,  and  a  great  number  of  other  distinguished  scientists 
and  thinkers  in  Europe  and  America.  We  have  already  laid 
before  our  readers  the  fundamental  principles  of  this  new 
school  of  philosophy,  as  laid  down  by  its  founder,  and  its 
chief  exponents.  It  remains  to  add,  that  besides  being 
scientific  in  its  methods  and  rational  in  its  doctrines,  it  is 
eminently  practical  in  its  objects  and  its  results. 

Its  aims  are  all  utilitarian,  and  its  principles  humanitarian. 
It  is  neither  dogmatic  nor  visionary,  but  liberal  and  exact. 
Taking  nature  as  its  only  source  of  information,  and  the 
phenomena  of  the  universe  as  the  material  for  its  deductions, 
it  seeks  in  the  observation  of  their  uniformities  in  the 
present,  to  trace  all  things  back  to  their  true  origin  in  the 
past,  and  calculate  their  true  destiny  in  the  future. 

In  this  two-fold  view  it  passes  in  review  all  the  systems 
and  institutions  of  man  upon  the  earth ;  follows  them  back 


ii2  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

to  their  natural  source  in  his  remote  history,  and  predicts 
with  all  necessary  certainty  their  ultimate  collapse  or 
triumph.  Premising  a  reign  of  law  as  absolute  and  certain 
over  the  affairs  of  men  and  nations  as  over  the  movements 
of  the  celestial  spheres,  the  new  philosophy  grapples  as 
successfully  with  the  questions  of  human  society,  law, 
government,  morals,  and  religion  as  with  those  of  astron- 
omy, chemistry,  or  physics.  To  reform  humanity  is  the 
grand  object  of  this  system.  Its  expounders  realize  their 
power,  by  this  method,  of  accomplishing  this  object;  ari 
if  his  followers  do  not  all  avow  it  as  openly  and  as  repeatedly 
as  Comte  did,  they  certainly  practice  it  since  his  death  with 
equal  sincerity  and  far  greater  results.  They  have  caught 
the  true  inspiration,  as  their  exact  inquiries  have  revealed 
to  them  the  great  and  hitherto  hidden  secret  of  human 
progress  in  the  transcendent  majesty  of  knowledge  over  all 
other  sources  for  securing  this  end ;  and  from  each  and  all 
of  the  recognized  lights  of  the  Positive  Philosophy  the  cry 
has  gone  up  for  more  knowledge,  better  knowledge !  Edu- 
cation, and  of  the  true  sort,  is  what  they  demand,  and  that 
for  all  mankind. 

Education  is  the  key-note  of  the  sociological  system  of  this 
school  of  philosophers,  and  they  intend  to  ring  the  changes 
upon  it  till  all  the  world  shall  be  awakened  to  its  incalcu- 
lable importance. 

Such  is  a  brief  review  of  the  history,  nature,  and  aim  of 
what  we  denominate  the  rising  school;  and  we  confess  we 
cannot,  as  Liberals,  ignore  the  existence  or  achievements  of 
this  noble  movement.  Its  laborers  are  Liberals  in  the 
widest  sense  who,  in  the  very  act  of  building  a  grand  struc- 
ture with  knowledge  for  its  corner-stone,  are  removing  in 
the  most  effectual  manner  the  rotten  timbers  of  theological 
error  and  popular  superstition. 


December  I,  l87O—JEtat.  29. 

31.    Another  Pious  Fraud 

History. — Written  Dec.  I,  1870.  The  event 
described  had  taken  place  the  previous  evening, 
and  I  was  one  of  the  victims  and  of  course 
indignant. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  I,  No.  10,  December  i,  1870. 


THE  opening  of  the  course  of  Scientific  Lectures  in 
Lincoln  Hall  on  Wednesday  evening  last,  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association, 
was  signalized  by  one  of  those  unprincipled  frauds  on  the 
public  which  are  considered  unpardonable  in  any  company 
of  managers  who  make  no  pretentions  to  being  better  than 
other  men  are. 

Unable  to  sell  people  reserved  seats  at  ten  cents  extra 
before  the  lecture,  they  undertook  to  force  them  to  buy 
them  on  their  arrival,  by  stationing  ushers  to  inform  all  as 
they  came  in  that  such  and  such  seats  (all  the  most  eligible 
ones)  were  reserved.  This  forced  the  audience  to  fill  up 
the  back  seats  or  buy  reserved  seats  on  the  spot.  Fortu- 
nately, few  were  hoaxed  into  this  latter  alternative,  as  the 
audience  was  not  very  large,  but  the  lecturer  had  to  make 
the  effort  to  speak  loud  enough  for  persons  in  the  extreme 
rear  to  hear,  many  of  whom  were  unable,  at  best,  to  hear 
8  "3 


ii4  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

distinctly,  while  the  seats  in  front  were  to  a  great  extent 
vacant. 

It  would  seem  as  if  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  had  some  vague 
conception  that  every  new  lecture  on  Science  is  a  brick  out 
of  their  edifice,  and  were  proceeding  on  the  principle  that 
there  should  be  no  great  loss  without  some  small  gain ;  and, 
indeed,  such  a  lecture  as  that  by  Prof.  Morton,  on  the  Light 
of  the  Sun,  (not  that  spurious  stuff  that  the  Christian  Bible 
tells  us  was  made  before  the  sun  was),  is  practically  more 
potent  than  a  crusade  against  the  pet  superstition. 


December  I,  I87O — JEtat,  29. 

32.     Doctrinal  Sketches 
[No.  2]  The  Fall  of  Man 

History. — Written  Nov.  18-20,  1870. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  I,  No.  10,  December  i,  1870. 


MAN  was  originally  made  morally  perfect,  and  but 
for  the  unfortunate  event  which  forms  the  sub- 
ject of  my  sketch  he  might  have  remained  so  to 
this  day.  But  God,  when  he  placed  him  in  the  Garden  of 
Eden,  placed  there  also  a  certain  tree  called  "the  tree  of 
knowledge  of  good  and  evil. "  The  fruit  of  this  tree  being 
very  good  to  eat,  it  must  have  been  planted  there  to  test  the 
quality  of  the  creature  which  God  had  made,  for  when  He 
put  Adam  into  the  Garden  of  Eden  to  dress  it  and  to  keep 
it,  He  gave  him  special  direction  not  to  eat  this  fruit.  It  is 
probable  that  Adam  would  have  kept  this  injunction  had 
not  Eve  first  been  tempted  by  the  serpent  and  induced  to 
eat.  The  serpent,  being  wise,  and  knowing  the  special 
failings  of  woman,  tempted  her,  and  easily  obtained  in  this 
way  what  would  have  been  impossible  by  any  other  means. 
So  she  eat  of  the  fruit  of  the  tree  of  knowledge  of  good  and 
evil,  and  gave  some  to  her  husband,  who  eat  also.  Now  the 
effect  of  this  act  of  disobedience  was  to  render  man  morally 
imperfect.  For  it  gave  him  at  once  a  knowledge  of  good  and 

115 


ii6  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

evil,  and  having  obtained  this  knowledge  by  an  evil  act, 
viz.,  disobedience,  the  newly  acquired  knowledge  had  an 
immediate  object,  and  the  pair  became  conscious  of  guilt. 
Any  other  act  of  disobedience  or  evil  of  whatever  kind  would 
have  involved  no  guilt,  for  it  could  have  brought  with  it  no 
knowledge  of  the  evil  of  the  act.  If  Adam  had  fallen  at  his 
beautiful  companion  and  slain  and  devoured  her,  it  could 
have  been  no  crime ;  but  the  eating  of  a  forbidden  apple  not 
only  worked  the  total  moral  corruption  of  our  first  parents, 
but  the  fall  and  condemnation  of  the  whole  human  race. 
From  that  time  forth  every  human  being  born  into  the 
world  has  brought  with  him  this  depravity  from  his  very 
birth. 

It  requires  no  new  act  on  his  part  to  render  him  guilty. 
He  is  condemned  already. 

This  depravity  of  the  whole  race  consequent  upon  Adam's 
eating  that  apple,  is  "total,"  i.e.,  man  is  affected  with 
infinite  guilt.  Not  only  does  it  not  require  any  new  act  of 
disobedience  on  his  part,  but  he  is  incapable  of  performing 
any  act  of  his  own  which  will  in  the  least  mitigate  or  extenu- 
ate this  guilt.  He  can  do  no  act  which  in  the  sight  of  God 
shall  be  adjudged  good. 

The  punishment  attached  to  this  state  of  guilt  is  also 
infinite.  It  consists  in  an  eternity  of  torment  in  the  flames 
of  hell — the  place  which  God  has  prepared  for  the  punish- 
ment of  his  fallen  creatures.  If  the  reader  will  figure  to 
himself  as  nearly  as  possible  what  infinite  suffering  from 
burning  would  be,  and  then  connect  this  idea  with  that  of 
infinite  duration  in  time,  he  will  get  as  correct  an  idea  of 
the  future  destiny  of  man  after  the  fall  as  it  is  possible  for 
the  finite  mind  to  conceive.  If  this  punishment  is  thought 
to  be  somewhat  severe  it  must  be  remembered  that  it  has 
at  least  the  merit  of  being  just,  and  if  it  seems  to  differ  from 
our  vulgar  notion  of  justice,  it  must  be  also  considered  that 
"God's  ways  are  not  our  ways, "  and  that  men's  notions  of 
justice  and  all  other  virtues  are  very  imperfect. 

This  abode  called  hell  is  ruled  over  by  Satan,  or  the  Devil, 


THE  FALL  OF  MAN  117 

once  an  Archangel  of  Heaven,  but  who  was  consigned  to  this 
region,  together  with  his  whole  army  of  adherents,  after  an 
unsuccessful  war  with  the  Almighty  and  His  angels  on  the 
plains  of  Heaven.  He  it  was  who  disguised  himself  as  a 
serpent  and  beguiled  Eve,  thus  securing  to  his  dominion 
the  human  race  which  God  had  created,  "in  his  own  image, " 
perfect,  and  for  his  own  glory;  a  triumph  achieved  by 
strategy  and  cunning,  which  went  far  to  compensate  him 
for  his  defeat  in  open  battle. 

Thus  was  mankind  doomed;  through  the  superior  craft 
of  Satan,  to  the  perpetual  service  of  this  wicked  master, 
amid  the  tortures  of  everlasting  flames  which  never  con- 
sume and  are  never  extinguished.  And  such  would  have 
been  his  fate  forever  had  not  a  partial  remedy  been  devised 
four  thousand  years  afterwards  in  the  mind  of  Omniscience, 
whereby  a  way  is  opened  up  for  all  who  can  and  will  to 
escape  and  be  saved.  This  great  remedial  scheme,  which 
will  form  the  subject  of  my  next  sketch,  is  generally  known 
as  the  "Plan  of  Salvation" 


January,  1871—SEtat.  29. 

33.    Official  Bigotry 

History. — Written  in  December,  1870.  In  the 
next  number  of  the  Iconoclast  it  will  be  made  to 
appear  that  the  postmaster  was  not  to  blame  unless 
for  carelessness  in  allowing  the  fact  to  occur. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  I,  No.  n,  January,  1871. 


WHILE  opposition  to  free  thought  is  presupposed 
from  past  experience,  it  does  not  often  happen 
that  we  are  called  upon  to  criticise  the  acts  of 
the  agents  of  our  Government,  because  of  opposition  on 
their  part,  based  upon  their  authority  as  agents.  We  say 
that  the  official  power  of  these  agents  is  not  often  so  openly 
perverted  as  to  make  the  office  a  direct  channel  through 
which  religious  persecution  shall  flow.  There  are  numerous 
instances  of  direct  interference  in  matters  of  State,  on  the 
part  of  the  church.  Individuals  are  continually  being 
thrust  into  public  positions,  without  regard  to  honesty, 
fitness,  or  moral  worth,  whose  only  recommendation  is 
drawn  from  the  pew  of  a  church.  So  prevalent  has  become 
this  influence,  that  one  may  frequently  hear  A.  ask  B.  how 
it  happened  that  C.  (who  is  known  to  lack  the  proper 
qualifications)  obtained  a  certain  situation.  The  answer 
makes  it  plain  enough;  for  D.  the  appointing  power,  drinks 
wine  at  the  same  altar  with  C.  We  recall  instances  of 

118 


OFFICIAL  BIGOTRY  u9 

persons  desiring  matrimony,  who,  knowing  that  they  must 
otherwise  fail,  pretend  religious  conversion,  join  the  church, 
and  thereby  consummate  the  marriage.  This  is  an  evil 
of  the  blackest  character — one  that  follows  the  lives  of  two 
human  beings — and  yet  it  arises  from  the  prevailing  system 
of  theology,  which  turns  a  living  lie  into  a  mere  fashion. 

Struggles  between  the  various  religious  sects  are  still 
going  on,  as  they  have  been  in  the  past ;  not  that  either,  by 
increased  numerical  strength,  may  the  more  honor  that  God, 
who  regards  all  as  the  elect ;  but  for  increased  temporal  power, 
that  will  be  wielded,  if  obtained  by  the  one,  to  the  perse- 
cution and  destruction  of  all  others.  Such  is  past  history, 
which  has  only  to  repeat  itself.  Instance,  a  distinguished 
General,  and  a  no  less  distinguished  Reverend,  the  one 
prepared  alike  with  sword  for  spilling  blood,  and  with 
craft  to  fleece  his  fellows  by  speculation  (?),  while  the  other 
is  an  orator  of  sufficient  power  to  reach  the  attentive  ear 
of  Presidents.  The  former  thrives  because  of  his  connec- 
tion with  the  church,  and  the  latter,  because  of  his  con- 
nection with  the  pockets  of  his  fashionable  congregation.  A 
more  efficient  system  of  spiritual  checks  and  worldly  bal- 
ances, it  would  be  difficult  to  devise.  No  wonder  that  ample 
material  is  supplied  for  gilded  churches  from  so  many 
gilded  consciences.  The  designing  and  inordinately  am- 
bitious, as  the  surest  road  to  preferment,  seek  a  place  in  the 
bosom  of  a  church,  and  go  out  from  its  baptism,  to  prey 
upon  the  credulity  of  the  masses. 

The  tendency  of  individual  expression  to  drift  with  the 
popular  tide,  is  so  strong  that  those  who  turn  from  serious 
contemplation  of  existing  fact  and  fashion  with  positive 
disgust,  have  not  the  moral  courage  to  express  an  opinion 
in  conflict  with  prevailing  sentiment.  If  one  is  inclined  to 
doubt  the  truth  of  popular  theories,  though  the  inclination 
be  superinduced  by  private  reasoning  and  mature  reflection, 
the  expression  of  that  doubt  is  restricted  (if  not  entirely 
smothered)  so  that  the  world  at  large,  shall  not  have  the 
benefit  of  an  interchange  of  thought.  On  the  other  hand, 


120  GLIMPSES  OP  THE  COSMOS 

the  very  excesses  of  fashion,  lead  a  devotee  into  most  ex- 
travagant expression,  and  thus  has  accumulated  the  weight 
of  absurdity  that  bears  down  the  popular  mind.  To  be 
simply  in  fashion  does  not  satisfy  the  restive  mind  of  man, 
and  if  it  be  barred  from  progressing  by  the  light  of  knowl- 
edge, it  will  feed  upon  the  pabulum  immediately  offered  to  it. 
We  have  been  led  to  speak  upon  a  phase  of  fashion,  at  the 
present  time,  from  the  reception  of  an  official  notice,  which 
our  readers  will  find  upon  the  third  page  of  this  number. 
The  writer  of  the  "reason"  why  our  paper  should  be  dis- 
continued to  a  bona  fide  subscriber,  is  doubtless  a  respect- 
able Christian,  whose  parents  "from  time  immemorial" 
were  Christians  also,  and  how  is  it  possible  for  him  to  be 
otherwise?  He  is  but  one  of  many,  who  seem  to  have  no 
higher  calling  than,  parrot-like,  to  repeat  what  they  hear. 
We  refer  to  him  in  a  spirit  of  charity,  as  one  of  the  butter- 
flies of  fashion,  simply  to  show  the  nature  of  the  opposition 
which  Liberals  have  to  overcome.  If  any  postal  law, 
whether  just  or  unjust  in  its  operation,  has  been  trans- 
gressed, let  the  fact  be  stated,  and  we  shall  not  repeat  the 
transgression.  Until  this  is  done,  we  shall  forward  each 
issue  of  the  ICONOCLAST,  hoping  that  our  Post  Office  friend 
will  not  add  theft  to  his  Christian  zeal. 

The  following  is  the  notice  to  which  we  refer  editorially : 

Post  Office,  Eufaula,  [Ala.] 
To  the  Editor  of  the  Iconoclast. 
SIR: 

Pursuant  to  instructions  from  the  Postmaster  Gen- 
eral I  beg  leave  to  inform  you  that  your  paper,  addressed  to 
Mr.  *****  is  not  taken  out,  but  remains  dead  in  this 
Office.  You  will  please  discontinue  the  same. 

C.  P.  WHEELER, 

Postmaster, 
Nance,  Asst. 

Reason    A  worthless  sheet,  calculated  to  do  only  evil,  and 
that  continually. 


January,  1871— Mtat.  29. 

34.    About  Evidence 

History. — Written  Dec.  n,  1870.     I  was  a  law 

student  at  that  time  and  we  were  using  Starkie 
on  Evidence,  which  is  a  standard  work,  and  a 
very  excellent  treatise  on  the  subject. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  I,  No.  n,  January,  1871. 


WITH  respect  to  the  weight  of  evidence,  the  law 
books  distinguish  three  degrees:  ist,  "Actual 
perception  of  the  fact  by  the  senses."  2nd, 
"Information  of  others,  who  have  had  the  means  of  acquir- 
ing actual  knowledge  of  the  facts."  3rd,  "Information 
which  we  derive  from  one  who  knows  nothing  more  of  the 
fact  than  that  it  has  been  asserted  by  some  other  person. " 
The  first  of  these  species  of  evidence,  is  always  admitted 
in  law;  the  second,  occasionally,  when  the  first  cannot  be 
had;  the  third,  never,  except  in  the  most  exceptional  and 
especial  cases.  The  only  cases,  indeed,  to  be  found  in  the 
books,  which  can  strictly  be  referred  to  this  head,  as  excep- 
tions to  the  rule  excluding  hearsay  evidence  of  particular 
facts,  are:  ist,  "Declarations  or  entries  against  the  interest 
of  the  persons  making  them."  2nd,  "Entries  made  by 
parties  in  the  usual  course  of  their  business."  We  are 
particular  to  state  these  explicitly,  and  in  the  very  words  of 

121 


122  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

the  best  authority,  lest,  in  what  we  are  about  to  say,  it 
should  be  answered  that  the  case  put  might  be  covered  by 
these  exceptions. 

Now  we  are  prepared  to  assert,  that,  not  only  the  miracles 
but  the  very  books  and  their  assumed  authors,  and  all  other 
facts,  which  tend  to  support  the  pretended  revelation,  the 
church  and  the  religion  of  Christendom,  rest  wholly  and 
exclusively  upon  this  lowest  of  all  the  kinds  of  evidence 
possible,  and  which  the  law  invariably  excludes.  Upon 
what  a  flimsy  foundation,  then,  does  this  great  structure 
of  Christianity  rest?  The  very  best  evidence  which  could 
be  invented  to  establish  its  truth,  would  be  instantly 
declared  inadmissible  in  any  Court  of  law  in  Christendom ! 
There  is  not  even  a  spark  of  circumstantial  evidence  to 
support  it,  every  historian  contemporary  with  its  origin 
being  silent  with  regard  to  these  alleged  facts,  persons,  and 
writings. 

Infidels  have  been  accused  of  demanding  evidence  in  sup- 
port of  revealed  religion,  unlike  to  that  which  is  demanded 
of  any  other  event.  We  deny  this,  and  only  insist  that 
such  evidence  shall  be  produced  as  would  be  admissible  in  a 
legal  tribunal.  Any  mere  testimony  is  unreliable  enough. 
Why,  in  these  days  of  spirits,  it  is  not  difficult  to  find  a  hun- 
dred men,  any  time,  to  swear  to  a  clear  sensual  perception 
of  greater  miracles  than  any  performed  by  Christ ;  and  this, 
their  direct  testimony,  being  the  highest  of  the  three  species 
of  evidence  known  to  the  law,  would  be  not  only  admissible, 
but  sufficient  to  convict  the  most  exemplary  Christian  of  the 
most  infamous  crime,  if  directed  to  that  end,  is  rejected  and 
repudiated  by  them  all,  as  well  as  by  Infidels  and  rational 
people.  Yet,  our  orthodox  friends  are  clinging  with  a 
frenzied  infatuation  to  a  rotten  old  system,  which  has  not 
one  scintilla  of  rational  or  legal  evidence  to  found  a  pre- 
sumption in  its  favor. 


January,  1871—JEtat.  29. 

35.    [Beecher*s  Belief  in  Immortality] 

History. — Item  clipped  from  the  Sunday  Chron- 
icle of  Dec.  n,  1870,  and  comment  written  on  that 
date. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  I,  No.  1 1 ,  January,  1871. 


I  TELL  you  truly,  that  if  I  were  to  be  convinced  to-morrow  that 
all  this  is  a  fiction,  that  there  is  no  existence  beyond  the  grave 
I  would  seal  my  mouth  with  the  seven  seals  of  the  Apocalypse 
which  no  man  could  break  open,  before  I  would  whisper  that 
guilty  disclosure. — Henry  Ward  Beecher's  Sermon,  Sunday  Oct.g,  1870. 

This  may  do  very  well  for  clergymen,  but  for  our  part 
we  would  be  very  glad  to  know  the  truth,  whatever  it  be. 
We  believe  in  the  superiority  of  truth  over  error,  however 
unpleasant  the  former,  however  pleasing  the  latter,  and  if 
we  knew  the  truth  respecting  this  matter,  we  would  hasten 
to  proclaim  it  to  the  world,  even  if  it  should  dash  all  men's 
cherished  hopes  of  future  bliss  to  the  earth.  The  differ- 
ence between  us  and  Mr.  Beecher,  is  this:  that  though 
neither  knows  anything  at  all  about  it,  he  goes  about 
preaching  immortality  while  we  say  nothing,  but  humbly 
acknowledge  our  ignorance. — ED. 


123 


January,  1871—JEtat.  29. 

36.    Doctrinal  Sketches 
[No.  3]     The  Plan  of  Salvation 

History. — Written  Dec.  18,  19,  and  22,  1870. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.C.,  Vol.  I,  No.  n,  January,  1871. 


THE  primary  object  of  the  Almighty,  in  creating  man 
was  to  people  Heaven  with  angels.  His  prolonged 
struggle  with  Satan,  though  successful,  may  have 
served  to  seal  His  determination  from  considerations  of 
policy,  in  seeking  to  fortify  His  empire  against  any  future 
attempt  of  a  like  nature.  Be  this  as  it  may,  it  is  clear  that 
man  was  designed,  ultimately,  for  an  inhabitant  of  Paradise. 
But  after  the  unfortunate  and  unexpected  event,  de- 
scribed in  my  last  sketch,  whereby  Satan  succeeded  in  totally 
corrupting  the  human  race,  and  rendering  it  wholly  unfit  to 
enter  Heaven — I  mean  after  the  fall  of  man — it  became 
apparent  that  the  plans  of  Jehovah,  whether  laid  with  a 
view  solely  to  His  own  glory,  in  exalting  a  new  being,  or 
with  a  view  to  the  safety  and  protection  of  His  Kingdom, 
were  effectually  circumvented.  It  became  a  necessity, 
therefore,  to  take  measures  to  neutralize,  as  far  as  possible, 
the  effect  of  this  sad  calamity. 

Sixteen  and-a-half  centuries  had  elapsed,  and  the  con- 
demned race  had  multiplied  and  increased,  filling  the  whole 

124 


THE  PLAN  OF  SALVATION  125 

land.  Millions  and  hundreds  of  millions  had  gone  to  people 
the  regions  of  despair  and  agony,  for  all  eternity.  And  all 
this  before  any  plan  could  be  devised  for  their  relief.  At 
last,  the  power  of  the  Devil  grew  so  corrupting  that  it 
became  necessary  to  destroy  the  whole  human  race  with  a 
flood,  reserving  a  single  family  to  perpetuate  the  species. 
It  was  fondly  hoped  that  this  would  regenerate  the  fallen 
race.  But,  alas!  the  corruption  was  too  deep  seated,  and 
broke  out  anew  with  the  first  descendants  of  Noah.  Eight 
hundred  and  fifty-eight  years  later,  a  second  stratagem 
was  resorted  to  for  the  cherished  purpose  of  bringing  man 
back  to  righteousness.  The  Lord  selected  out  of  all  the 
people,  then  living  upon  the  earth,  a  single  family,  that  of 
Jacob,  to  whom  He  devoted  his  special  attention,  keeping 
watch  and  ward  over  them,  by  day  and  by  night,  showing 
them  peculiar  favors,  and  bestowing  upon  them  the  rarest 
blessings;  leading  them  out  of  bondage  and  captivity,  and 
awarding  them  the  finest  lands,  to  the  neglect  and  disregard 
of  all  the  rest  of  mankind.  This  indulgence  was  continued 
for  fifteen  hundred  years,  during  all  of  which  time,  the 
"chosen  people"  displayed  every  species  of  human  weak- 
ness, committing  all  manner  of  crimes,  and  more  than  once, 
attempting  to  throw  off  their  allegiance  to  Jehovah.  At  the 
end  of  this  time,  all  of  the  twelve  tribes  but  one,  had,  in 
fact,  ceased  to  be  recognized  by  Him,  and  had  given  them- 
selves up  to  the  worship  of  false  gods. 

It  became  apparent  now,  that  this  second  attempt  to 
defeat  the  intrigues  of  the  wily  Prince  of  Darkness,  had, 
like  the  first,  proved  a  failure.  Something  desperate  must 
be  done.  For  the  third  time,  the  Wisdom  of  Heaven 
assembled  in  council  over  the  affairs  of  man.  He  must  be 
saved ;  and  the  plan  adopted  for  his  salvation,  was  nothing 
less  than  this :  Jesus  Christ,  the  only  begotten  Son  of  God, 
descended  to  earth ;  he  put  on  flesh  and  blood,  and  assumed 
the  nature  of  humanity,  capable  of  both  mental  and  physical 
suffering.  He  was  begotten  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  conceived 
by  the  still  virgin  bride  of  a  Jewish  mechanic,  and  born 


126  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

under  the  most  humble  circumstances  in  an  obscure  village 
of  Syria.  From  the  age  of  twelve,  he  was  going  from  place 
to  place,  in  the  vicinity  of  his  birth-place,  accompanied  by 
a  dozen  poor  fishermen  as  disciples,  and  preaching  to  his 
fellow  men  the  doctrine  of  resurrection  and  eternal  glory 
to  those  that  believed  on  him,  and  damnation  and  eternal 
misery  to  those  who  did  not.  This  was  the  first  intimation 
that  poor,  ignorant  man  had  ever  had,  as  to  what  had  been, 
or  was  to  be,  the  fate  of  the  dead.  He  was  at  length  seized 
by  the  officers  of  the  law,  condemned  for  sedition,  and 
crucified  between  two  thieves.  His  blood  thus  shed,  con- 
stituted a  complete  and  effectual  atonement  for  all  the  sins, 
either  actually  committed,  or  inherited  through  the  fall, 
of  those  who  should  believe  on  him,  and  such  would,  and 
still  will  be  saved,  and  admitted,  after  death,  into  the  abode 
of  celestial  joys.  Those,  who,  for  any  cause,  fail  so  to 
believe,  are  left,  as  before,  under  the  original  condemnation, 
consequent  upon  Adam's  transgression. 

Such  was  the  great  Plan  of  Salvation,  which,  so  far  as  it 
went,  was  successful,  and  though  it  has,  in  the  eighteen  and- 
a-half  centuries  which  it  has  been  in  operation,  gained  only  a 
small  fraction  of  the  human  race,  yet  it  is  believed  by  the 
courts  above,  that  it  will  yet  expand  and  embrace  them  all. 

In  my  next  sketch,  I  will  consider  somewhat  more  in  par- 
ticular, the  special  topic  of  the  Vicarious  Atonement,  inci- 
dentally touched  upon  in  the  present  communication. 


January,    1871— Mtat.  29. 

37.    Scraps   of  Ecclesiastical    History 
[No.  1]    The  Sacred  Writings 

History. — This  series  was  commenced  Nov. 
26,  1870,  and  I  first  called  the  present  article 
"Origin  of  the  Church. "  I  finished  writing  it  the 
following  day  and  changed  the  title.  The  first 
two  articles  are  signed  EUSEBIUS.  The  date  of 
this  one,  Dec.  25,  1870,  was  that  on  which  I 
submitted  it  to  the  printer. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  I,  No.  1 1,  January,  1871. 


MR.  EDITOR: — I  have  been  informed  that  your  paper 
circulates  largely  among  the  adherents  of  the  Orthodox 
church  as  a  gratuitous  tract,  and  as  it  seems  to  be  always 
respectful  and  high-toned,  I  doubt  not,  many  such  are 
prevailed  upon  to  read  its  sound  and  well  digested  articles. 
As  you  desire  me  to  contribute  something  occasionally  to  its 
columns,  I  will  endeavor  to  address  myself  more  directly 
to  this  class,  and  will  favor  them  with  historical  accounts  of 
events  belonging  to  the  history  of  their  church.  In  so  doing, 
I  shall  aim  to  be,  in  all  respects,  truthful  in  my  narrations 
even  though  they  should  refuse  me  the  credit  of  being 

127 


128  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

impartial  in  my  selections.  And  I  shall  begin  with  a  brief 
notice  of  the  record  authorities  upon  which  the  church  rests. 
These  are,  of  course,  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  i.e.  the 
Bible. 

But  what  is  the  Bible?  Many  seem  to  suppose  that  the 
Bible  was  always  in  its  present  form ;  that  it  was  handed 
down  from  Heaven  by  the  Almighty,  just  as  we  find  it  to- 
day, all  arranged  into  parts,  books,  chapters,  paragraphs  and 
verses,  and  printed  in  the  good  old-fashioned  "solemn  style" 
English.  They  do  not,  in  fact,  know  that  it  consists  of  a 
great  heterogeneous  mass  of  matter,  which  was  once  scat- 
tered through  the  ages  that  preceded  the  art  of  printing, 
from  the  very  infancy  of  all  literature ;  that  it  was  written  by 
men  in  rude  and  imperfect  languages ;  that  it  was  gathered 
up  at  widely  separated  intervals  by  many  different  persons ; 
that  it  was  transcribed  and  re-transcribed  a  hundred  different 
times,  by  persons  desiring  to  prove  from  it  some  pet  dogma 
of  their  own,  and  who  could  have  altered  it  in  any  manner 
they  saw  fit;  that  it  was  translated  under  similar  circum- 
stances into  various  languages,  not  each  time  from  the  origi- 
nal manuscripts,  nor  even  the  original  language,  but  copies 
made  of  copies  and  translations  made  from  translations, 
till  to-day  there  does  not  exist  such  a  thing  as  an  original 
manuscript  of  a  single  chapter  of  the  Bible,  either  in  the 
Hebrew,  Chaldaic,  or  Greek  language. 

Without  entering  into  any  extended  exegesis  of  the  Ca- 
nonical Books  of  the  church,  I  may  say  with  safety,  of  the 
Old  Testament,  that,  though  ascribed  to  Moses  and  others, 
some  of  whom  flourished,  according  to  the  approved  chro- 
nology, as  early  as  the  i6th  century  before  Christ,  nothing 
whatever  was  known  of  it  in  the  year  630,  a  thousand  years 
later,  when  Hilkiah  is  said  to  have  "found  the  book  of  the 
law,"  which  had  been  lost  so  long  that  it  was  wholly  for- 
gotten. But  with  regard  to  the  genuineness  of  this  new 
found  book,  the  following  testimony  of  Chambers'  Encyclo- 
pedia is  in  point:  "The  generally  received  opinion  is,  that 
the  various  books  were  originally  written  by  the  persons 


THE  SACRED  WRITINGS  129 

whose  names  are  affixed  to  them,  except,  Judges,  Ruth, 
Esther,  Kings,  Chronicles,  and  perhaps  Job ;  but  that  these 
manuscripts  having  perished  in  the  destruction  of  the  first 
temple,  the  members  of  the  great  Synagogue,  acting  in 
accordance  with  a  divine  commission,  re-wrote  the  Old  Testa- 
ment." (!)  And  it  adds:  "In  the  absence  of  any  conclusive 
evidence  on  this  point,  the  contents  of  the  Old  Testament  have 
been  minutely  analysed  by  modern  German  critics,  who 
have  attempted  to  show  that  they  bear  internal  evidence  of 
having  been  composed,  generally,  at  a  later  period,  than  is 
ordinarily  believed.  This  opinion,  however,  has  met  with 
little  acceptance  out  of  Germany,  as  it  is  considered  to  be 
incompatible  with  the  view  of  inspiration  which  has  been  and 
still  is  commonly  held  both  by  Jewish  rabbis  and  Christian 
divines."  Such  a  ground  of  rejection  is  simply  begging 
the  question. 

Now  with  these  facts  before  him,  and  "in  the  absence  of 
any  conclusive  evidence, "  what  candid  person  can  arrive 
at  any  other  conclusion  than  that  it  is  all  of  comparatively 
modern  date,  or  not  as  old  as  the  Poems  of  Homer?  I  speak 
not  of  its  intrinsic  merits;  I  speak  of  it  only  as  an  authority, 
and  if  it  is  not  what  it  claims  to  be,  it  is  spurious.  And  yet 
this  old  dateless  and  incongruous  fiction,  is  one  of  the  but- 
ments  upon  which  the  church  rests. 

But  as  the  New  Testament  is  the  chief  support  I  propose 
to  treat  of  that  more  at  length  in  my  next. 

EUSEBIUS. 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  Dec.  25,  1870. 


February,  1871—SEtat.  29- 

38.    Originality 

History. — Written  Jan.  20,  1871.  This  article 
was  an  attempt  to  explain  the  large  proportion 
of  selected  matter  in  the  Iconoclast.  The  labor 
of  finding  and  copying  out  the  selections  was 
generally  much  greater  than  would  have  been 
that  of  writing  the  same  amount  of  original  matter, 
but  a  glance  at  the  sources  will  show  that  the 
Iconoclast  contained  the  cream  of  thought  of  both 
the  past  and  the  present. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  I,  No.  12,  February,  1871. 


BUT  two  objections  have  ever  been  raised  to  the  general 
character  of  the  ICONOCLAST  ;  the  one,  that  our  sheet 
is  too  small,  the  other,  that  there  is  not  enough 
original  matter  in  it.     The  first  of  these  has  been  sufficiently 
answered  in  our  sixth  number.     The  second,  it  shall  be  our 
purpose  to  answer  now. 

The  objection  of  want  of  originality  is  one  of  the  easiest 
and  most  common  ever  used  against  a  new  publication. 
When  urged  against  the  ICONOCLAST  it  must  spring  from  a 
total  misunderstanding  of  the  aim  and  purpose  of  our  paper. 
To  class  us  in  the  same  category  with  the  literary  periodicals 
and  the  organs  of  light  reading  and  belles  lettres  of  the  day, 
is  indeed  a  fundamental  mistake. 

130 


ORIGINALITY  131 

We  are  not  aiming  chiefly  to  amuse  our  readers  or  to 
dazzle  them  with  the  brilliancy  of  our  original  efforts.  Our 
work  is  to  convince,  to  persuade,  to  influence  the  judgment 
of  a  biassed  public,  and  to  this  object  every  other  is  sacri- 
ficed, or  made  subservient.  And  we  have  long  since  learned 
that  this  false  public  sentiment,  not  being  based  on  reason, 
cannot  successfully  be  combated  by  reason,  but  being  based 
on  education  must  be  attacked  by  authority. 

Authority  is  the  god  that  ignorance  worships,  and  we  must 
bring  authority  to  bear  upon  it  if  we  would  hope  to  coun- 
teract it.  Hence  we  go  to  authorities.  We  seek  to  show 
that  all  the  authorities  are  by  no  means  on  the  side  of  error- 
To  do  this,  we  must  quote  these  authorities.  Every  sen- 
sible person  sees  that  the  words  of  such  men  as  Benjamin 
Franklin,  Thomas  Jefferson  or  Abraham  Lincoln,  are  a 
thousand  times  more  potent  than  anything  we  or  our 
correspondents  could  say,  though  gifted  with  the  highest 
inspiration. 

We  cannot  hope  by  our  feeble  voices,  mingling  as  they 
do  with  the  myriad  echoes  of  the  present  that  constantly 
rise  to  confuse  and  drown  each  other,  to  batter  down  these 
adamantine  walls  of  popular  prejudice.  But  when  the  great 
minds  of  the  past  speak  the  words  of  truth  and  wisdom, 
they  come  over  these  clouds  of  confusion  and  strife,  and 
sink  deep  into  the  popular  heart,  leavening  the  mass  with 
the  leaven  of  intelligence. 

This  is  our  standing  answer  to  the  objection  that  much  of 
our  matter  is  not  original.  It  is  far  more  effective  in  its 
purpose  than  anything  original  could  possibly  be,  whatever 
its  intrinsic  merit. 

If  there  be  any  who  prefer  amusing  or  flippant  articles, 
we  have  only  to  say  that  we  cannot  expect  the  patronage  of 
such.  The  ICONOCLAST  depends  for  its  support  upon  think- 
ing people,  and  confidently  hopes  that  that  class  is  able 
and  willing  to  continue  that  support. 


February,  1871—JEtat.  29. 

39.    Amende  Honorable 

History. — -Written  in  January,  1871.  This  is 
the  article  referred  to  in  the  introduction  to  the 
one  entitled:  "  Official  Bigotry." 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  I,  No.  12,  February,  1871. 


NOTHING  could  be  more  really  gratifying  to  us 
than  to  be  able  to  correct  the  mistake  under 
which  we  were  laboring,  when  we  indulged  the 
reflections  which  appeared  in  our  last  number  respecting 
what  could  not,  under  the  circumstances,  be  construed  in 
any  other  light  than  a  gross  abuse  of  official  power  in  the 
interest  of  the  church.  We  have  received  a  letter  from  the 
Postmaster  at  Eufaula,  Ala.,  completely  vindicating  him- 
self from  the  imputations  cast  upon  him,  and  explaining 
the  whole  affair  which  was  briefly  as  follows:  Some  inter- 
ested liberal  had  seen  fit  to  subscribe  for  the  ICONOCLAST  to 
be  sent,  pro  salute  animae,  to  the  Rev.  M.  B.  Wharton,  (who 
is  apparently  a  person  very  much  in  need  of  it) ;  an  example, 
which  many  more  would  do  well  to  follow.  It  was  he  who 
desired  the  paper  stopped,  and  dictated  the  "reason"  why, 
which  the  Postmaster  omitted  to  make  him  sign,  as  is  the 
custom.  Hence  the  misunderstanding.  We  are  free  to 
say  that  we  are  glad  we  were  mistaken,  and  cheerfully 

132 


AMENDE  HONORABLE  133 

publish  the  concluding  words  of  the  P.  M.'s,  letter,  which 
are  as  follows : 

"Since  these  things  are  so"  will  you  do  me  the  simple 
justice  to  set  me  right  before  the  readers  of  your  paper,  and 
also  desire  the  Editor  of  the  Boston  Investigator  to  do  the 
same?  This  for  two  reasons:  first,  because  I  desire  greatly 
to  be  an  impartial  public  office  holder,  and  second,  because 
I  hail  from  Massachusetts,  and  was,  for  many  years,  a 
subscriber  to  Garrison's  Liberator. 

Truly  Yours, 

C.  P.  WHEELER." 


February,  1871—JEtat.  29- 

40.    Doctrinal  Sketches 

[No.  4]    The  Atonement 
History. — Written  Jan.  24  and  25,  1871. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  I,  No.  12,  February,  1871. 


rE  precise  manner  in  which  the  death  of  Jesus  Christ 
worked  the  redemption  and  salvation  of  those  who 
believed  on  him,  is  not  known  to  mankind.  No 
one  can  reason  out  this  truth.  As  it  was  impossible  to 
predict  such  a  result  from  such  an  event  before  that  event 
took  place,  so  is  it  equally  impossible,  since  the  event  and 
knowing  the  result,  to  connect  the  one  with  the  other  in  the 
relation  of  cause  and  effect.  It  is,  however,  enough  to  know 
that  such  was  the  case.  It  would  be  impious  to  inquire 
into  the  rationale  of  an  event  so  fraught  with  blessings  to  a 
lost  race. 

The  atonement  made  by  the  sufferings  of  Christ  for  the 
sins  of  mankind,  is  of  a  remedial  nature,  and  although  it 
does  not  reach  backward  and  lift  out  the  millions  who  had 
been  cast  into  the  pit  before  it  was  made,  it  does  operate  in 
behalf  of  all  who  at  any  period  of  their  lives  see  fit  to  avail 
themselves  of  its  relief,  by  believing  that  Christ  died  to 
save  them.  And  here  again  we  see  how  superior  are  the 
great  laws  of  deity  to  those  which  the  imperfect  reason  of 


THE   ATONEMENT  135 

man  would  establish.  For  no  matter  what  has  been  the 
previous  character  of  a  man,  no  matter  how  much  evil  he 
may  have  willfully  and  wantonly  committed  in  his  past  life, 
no  matter  how  irreparable  the  loss  which  the  world  may 
have  sustained  in  consequence  of  his  conduct;  he  has  only 
to  repent  and  believe,  and  the  blood  of  Jesus  saves  him.  He 
need  not  seek  to  repair  the  mischief  done,  it  is  not  certain 
that  he  even  need  cease  doing  it;  so  that  he  repents  of  his 
unbelief  and  trusts  in  the  saving  grace  of  the  Redeemer,  his 
sins  are  pardoned  and  his  soul  is  saved.  It  makes  no  differ- 
ence at  what  period  of  his  life  he  experiences  this  change, 
whether  it  be  in  youth  (though  this  is  safest  on  account  of 
the  frequent  suddenness  of  death)  or  whether  it  be  upon  the 
death  bed  or  the  executioner's  block 

"While  yet  the  lamp  holds  out  to  burn, 
The  vilest  sinner  may  return. " 

How  sublime  such  a  divine  provision !  How  far  above  the 
worldly  thoughts  of  men!  One  of  the  thieves  who  was 
crucified  by  the  side  of  Jesus  succeeded  in  summoning  this 
supreme  faith  before  he  died,  and  was  that  day  with  Christ 
in  Paradise;  and  to-day  not  a  convict  is  led  to  the  scaffold, 
who  is  not  sure  to  make  a  public  confession  of  that  faith  and 
thus  swing  gently  into  the  arms  of  the  Saviour !  Indeed  the 
statistics  of  the  prisons  of  Christendom  reveal  the  blessed 
fact  that  their  inmates  are  almost  universally  firm  believers 
in  the  efficacy  of  the  blood  of  Christ,  to  ultimately  cleanse 
them  from  their  sins  and  bring  them  safely  to  Heaven,  and 
doubtless  they  find  it  most  convenient  to  be  constantly 
prepared  for  any  emergency,  while  the  church  must  greatly 
rejoice  that  its  members  are  thus  increased. 

The  doctrine  of  the  atonement  furnishes  one  of  the  best 
illustrations  of  the  character  of  the  sublime  mysteries  of 
religion,  and  the  vast  superiority  of  faith  over  reason.  By 
reason  all  is  utterly  dark  and  inexplicable.  It  cannot  teach 
us  in  the  first  place,  how  the  death  of  Christ  should  counter- 


136  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

act  the  sin  of  Adam  for  those  who  believe,  or  in  the  second 
place,  how  the  mere  act  of  believing  should  accomplish  this 
great  work,  or  in  the  third  place,  why  Christ,  who  was 
innocent,  should  suffer  for  man  who  was  guilty.  All  this 
is  either  beyond  reason  or  contrary  to  reason ;  yet  faith  can 
embrace  it  all,  and  it  becomes  simple  as  the  thoughts  of 
childhood.  Such  is  the  magic  power  of  faith.  Believe 
it  is  so  and  then  it  is  clear. 

I  shall  consider  in  my  next  sketch,  the  doctrine  of  the 
Change  of  Heart. 


February,  1871— Mtat.  29. 

41.    Scraps  of  Ecclesiastical  History 

No.  2.     The  New  Testament 
History. — Written  Jan.  20-22,  1871. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  VoL  I,  No.  12,  February,  1871. 


THE  New  Testament  being  of  a  more  modern  date  than 
the  Old,  besides  being  the  great  basis  of  the  entire 
Christian  structure,  would  naturally  be  supposed 
to  have  the  very  highest  authority  in  support  of  its  genuine- 
ness, and  the  certain  truth  of  the  facts  it  sets  forth.  There 
certainly  should  be  no  room  for  doubt  as  to  the  real  existence 
of  the  characters,  as  to  who  actually  wrote  it  or  the  time  and 
place  when  and  where  these  characters  lived  and  acted, 
and  the  history  of  their  lives  and  actions,  was  written. 
Stripped  of  these  proofs  and  the  book  would  be  compelled 
to  stand  upon  its  intrinsic  merits  alone,  which  all  its  follow- 
ers admit  are  not  enough. 

Bishop  Butler  in  his  Analogy  declares  that  the  Christian 
religion  stands  upon  its  miracles,  and  it  is  clear  that  it  must 
derive  its  force  from  authority  rather  than  from  intrinsic 
merits,  for  if  it  were  left  to  depend  wholly  upon  these,  its 
precepts  and  doctrines  would  all  lose  their  force  for  want  of 
authority,  while  its  mere  moral  tone  and  literary  quality 

J37 


138  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

would  fall  below  the  productions  of  Plato,  and  many  other 
pagan  writers. 

Let  a  doubt  once  arise  of  its  divine  origin  and  its  whole 
power  is  instantly  gone,  for  there  is  not  a  moral  truth  in- 
culcated there  that  had  not  been  taught  centuries  before  it  is 
claimed  to  have  been  written.  Christ's  ' '  Golden  Rule ' '  was 
not  only  taught  by  Confucius,  the  Chinese  philosopher,  500 
years  before,  but  Hillel,  the  Jewish  rabbi,  laid  it  down,  only 
in  a  negative  form,  a  century  before  Christ,  and  from  whom 
he  evidently  borrowed  it ;  and  as  to  the  remainder  of  Christ's 
precepts,  which  his  followers  so  delight  to  extol,  such  as 
loving  our  enemies  &c.,  all  these  were  taught,  many  of 
them  in  a  much  stronger  form,  by  the  ethical  philosophers 
of  Greece  and  Asia  Minor,  long  before  the  Christian  era. 

It  is  upon  the  divine  origin,  then,  upon  the  plenary 
inspiration  of  the  New  Testament  that  Christianity  itself 
wholly  rests.  3It  is  either  divine  or  it  is  worthless.  It 
either  contains  a  revelation  from  God,  or  it  contains  nothing 
worthy  of  our  attention.  Now,  whether  the  New  Testa- 
ment is  a  divine  revelation  or  not  is  a  question  of  fact.  It 
must  be  proved  by  such  evidences  as  those  by  which  all 
other  facts  are  proved.  What  then  are  the  evidences  of 
this  divine  authority?  In  the  first  place  Christ  himself 
has  not  left  one  recorded  syllable  of  his  own  utterances. 
There  is  no  evidence,  and  no  one  claims  that  he  ever  wrote 
a  word  in  his  life.  And  this  is  a  very  suspicious  circum- 
stance, inasmuch  as  this  is  a  written  book  of  which  we  are 
speaking.  Some  one  must  have  written  it,  but  it  was  not 
Christ.  Yet  the  sayings  of  Christ  are  said  to  be  there 
recorded.  Was  there  then  a  corps  of  stenographic  reporters 
in  attendance,  who  caught  the  inspirations  as  they  fell  from 
his  lips?  O  no!  Such  things  belong  to  modern  times. 
Did  not,  then,  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and  John  go  to 
some  secluded  spot  each  night  and  recall  what  they  had 
heard  him  say,  and  reduce  the  same  to  writing?  By  no 
means. 

To  quote  only  Christian  authority,  the  gospel  of  Matthew, 


THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  139 

which  was  the  first,  was  written  in  the  year  61.  This 
would  make  it  28  years  after  Christ's  death,  or,  at  least,  24 
years,  if  we  make  the  usual  correction  of  four  years  between 
the  birth  of  Christ  and  the  date  assigned  for  the  beginning 
of  the  Christian  era.  What  reliability  would  be  attached 
to  a  report  of  a  speaker's  remarks  in  these  times,  made  from 
memory,  twenty-four  years  after  they  were  uttered?  The 
other  three  Gospels  are  admitted  to  be  of  a  much  later 
origin,  that  of  John  being  usually  fixed  in  the  year  78  A.D., 
or  41  years  after  the  crucifixion  of  Christ. 

It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  these  dates  are 
those  fixed  by  Christian  writers  and  based  on  a  deter- 
mination to  prove  the  genuineness  of  the  canonical  writ- 
ings, at  whatever  cost.  The  critical  inquiries  which  have 
been  instituted  in  Germany  and  other  countries,  having 
truth  only  for  their  object,  and  which  have  tested  all  the 
facts  of  antiquity,  whether  Roman,  Greek  or  Hebrew,  by 
the  one  great  standard  of  historical  and  rational  evidences, 
have  found  all  these  assumptions  untenable.  It  is  thus 
found,  first,  that  there  is  no  evidence  whatever,  of  the 
existence  of  such  writings  prior  to  the  middle  of  the  2nd 
century,  and  secondly,  that  strong  proofs  exist  that  all  the 
Gospels  were  composed  and  written  some  time  during  that 
century,  by  other  persons  who  all  drew  from  some  common 
source,  which  was  either  an  earlier  manuscript,  or  else  the 
oral  tradition  of  the  followers  of  Jesus  preserved  in  the 
sermons  and  conversation  of  the  early  Christians.  And 
now  that  they  have  shown  us  that  this  was  the  case,  how 
reasonable  it  seems !  For  how  could  the  disciples  of  Jesus 
write  these  things  as  they  followed  him  around,  or  remem- 
ber them  years  afterwards?  And  besides,  Matthew  was 
only  a  publican  and  John  a  fisherman;  what  could  they 
have  known  about  writing  in  those  dark  times  when  only 
one  in  a  thousand,  even  of  those  having  fortune  and 
influence,  was  acquainted  with  letters? 

These  are  considerations  worthy  of  the  attention  of  all, 
and  if  true,  their  necessary  effect  must  be  to  destroy  the 


HO  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

authority  of  the  New  Testament  in  destroying  the  proof 
of  its  genuineness.  No  one  denies  that  there  was,  if  not 
such  a  man  as  Jesus,  at  least,  a  tradition  of  such  a  man, 
and  that  is  all  that  is  required  to  substantiate  in  theory 
what  these  criticisms  have  established  in  fact,  that  the 
Christian  church  is  built  upon  a  series  of  inventions. 

EUSEBIUS. 


February,  1871—JEtat.  29. 

42.    A  Chapter  of  Law 

History. — In  the  law  school  to  which  I  belonged 
we  went  through  Blackstone's  Commentaries,  but 
we  omitted  the  Fourth  Book.  I  read  it  by  myself 
and  found  it  by  all  means  the  most  interesting 
part  of  that  monumental  work.  In  fact,  about  all 
that  I  now  remember  of  Blackstone  is  contained 
in  that  part.  It  was  law  in  his  time  and  it  is  still 
law  in  some  places,  but  of  course  it  is  out  of  har- 
mony with  American  ideas.  The  extract  was 
made  and  the  introductory  paragraph  written 
Jan.  15,  1871. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  I,  No.  12,  February,  1871. 


THE  following  extracts  from  the  4th  Chapter  of  the 
4th  Book  of  Blackstone's  Commentaries,  and  re- 
tained in  the  latest  editions  as  being  still  the  law 
of  England,  and  the  spirit  of  the  law  of  the  United  States, 
form  an  example  of  the  kind  of  stuff  which  is  being  daily 
taught  in  all  our  schools  of  Law. 

"Of  such  crimes  and  misdemeanors  as  more  immediately 
offend  Almighty  God,  by  openly  transgressing  the  precepts 
of  religion,  the  first  is  that  of  apostasy,  or  a  total  renuncia- 

141 


143  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

tion  of  Christianity,  by  embracing  either  a  false  religion  or 
no  religion  at  all.  The  belief  of  a  future  state  of  rewards 
and  punishments,  the  entertaining  just  ideas  of  the  moral 
attributes  of  the  Supreme  Being,  and  a  firm  persuasion  that 
He  superintends  and  will  finally  compensate  every  action  in 
human  life,  (all  which  are  clearly  revealed  in  the  doctrines, 
and  forcibly  inculcated  by  the  precepts  of  our  Saviour 
Christ,)  these  are  the  grand  foundation  of  all  judicial  oaths, 
which  call  God  to  witness  the  truth  of  those  facts,  which 
perhaps  may  be  only  known  to  Him  and  the  party  attesting ; 
all  moral  evidence,  therefore,  all  confidence  in  human  vera- 
city, must  be  weakened  by  apostasy,  and  overthrown  by 
total  infidelity. 

About  the  close  of  the  last  century  the  civil  liberties  to 
which  we  were  then  restored,  being  used  as  a  cloak  of  ma- 
liciousness, and  the  most  horrid  doctrines,  subversive  of  all 
religion  being  publicly  avowed,  both  in  discourse  and 
writings,  it  was  thought  necessary  for  the  civil  power  to 
interpose  by  not  admitting  those  miscreants  to  the  privi- 
leges of  society  who  maintained  such  principles  as  destroyed 
all  moral  obligations. 

To  this  end  it  was  enacted,  that  if  any  person  educated  in, 
or  having  made  profession  of  the  Christian  religion,  shall 
deny  the  Christian  religion  to  be  true,  or  the  holy  scriptures 
to  be  of  divine  authority,  he  shall,  upon  the  first  offence,  be 
rendered  incapable  to  hold  any  office  or  place  of  trust ;  and 
for  the  second,  be  rendered  incapable  of  bringing  any  action, 
being  guardian,  executor,  legatee,  or  purchaser  of  lands, 
and  shall  suffer  three  years  imprisonment  without  bail. 

A  second  offence  is  that  of  heresy,  which  consists  not  in  a 
total  denial  of  Christianity,  but  of  some  of  its  essential 
doctrines,  publicly  and  obstinately  avowed.  The  general 
definition  of  a  heretic  given  by  Lyndewode,  extends  to  the 
smallest  deviation  from  the  doctrines  of  the  holy  church, 
or  as  the  statute  2  Hen.  iv.  c.  15  expresses  it,  'teachers  of 
erroneous  opinions,  contrary  to  the  faith  and  blessed 
determinations  of  the  holy  church. '  By  statute  I  Eliz.  c.  I . 


A  CHAPTER  OF  LAW  143 

all  former  statutes  relating  to  heresy  are  repealed,  which 
leaves  the  jurisdiction  of  heresy  as  it  stood  at  common  law; 
viz. :  the  infliction  of  common  censures  in  the  ecclesiastical 
courts.  By  this  statute,  a  boundary  is  set  to  what  shall  be 
accounted  heresy;  nothing  being  to  be  so  determined,  but 
only  such  tenets  which  have  been  so  declared,  first ;  by  the 
words  of  the  canonical  scriptures,  second ;  by  the  first  four 
general  councils,  or  such  others  as  have  only  used  the  words 
of  the  holy  scriptures,  third;  which  shall  hereafter  be  so 
declared  by  parliament,  with  the  assent  of  the  clergy  in 
convocation.  The  legislature  hath  indeed  thought  it 
proper  that  the  civil  magistrate  should  again  interpose  with 
regard  to  one  species  of  heresy,  very  prevalent  in  modern 
times,  for  by  statute  9  and  10  W.  III.  c.  32,  if  any  person 
educated  in  the  Christian  religion,  or  professing  the  same, 
shall  deny  any  of  the  persons  of  the  Holy  Trinity  to  be  God, 
or  maintain  that  there  are  more  Gods  than  one,  he  shall 
undergo  the  same  penalties  and  incapacities  which  were 
just  now  mentioned  to  be  inflicted  on  apostasy. 

Another  species  of  offences  against  religion  are  those 
which  affect  the  established  churches.  If  any  person  whatever 
shall,  in  plays,  songs  or  other  open  words,  speak  anything  < 
in  derogation  of  the  book  of  common  prayer,  or  shall  forci- 
bly prevent  the  reading  of  it,  or  cause  any  other  service  to 
be  used  in  its  stead,  he  shall  forfeit  for  the  first  offence,  a 
hundred  marks;  for  the  second,  four  hundred,  and  for  the 
third,  shall  forfeit  all  his  goods  and  chatties,  and  suffer 
imprisonment  for  life.  Non-conformity  to  the  worship  of 
the  church  is  the  negative  branch  of  this  offence.  Non- 
conformists are  of  two  sorts :  first,  such  as  absent  themselves 
from  divine  worship  in  the  established  church  through  total 
irreligion  and  attend  the  service  of  no  other  persuasion. 
These  forfeit  one  shilling  to  the  poor  every  Lord's  day,  they 
so  absent  themselves,  and  20 1.  to  the  King  if  they  continue 
such  default  for  a  month  together.  The  second  species  of 
non-conformists  are  those  who  offend  through  a  mistake 
or  perverse  zeal.  [The  severe  penalties  here  enumerated 


144  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

against  papists  and  dissenters  are  too  numerous  to  be  given 
in  this  article.] 

A  fourth  species  of  offences  against  God  and  religion,  is 
that  of  blasphemy  against  the  Almighty  by  denying  His 
being  or  providence;  or  by  contumelious  reproaches  of  our 
Saviour  Christ.  Whither  also,  may  be  referred  all  profane 
scoffing  at  the  holy  scriptures,  or  exposing  it  to  contempt 
and  ridicule.  These  are  offences  punishable  at  common  law 
by  fine  and  imprisonment,  or  other  infamous  corporal 
punishment;  for  Christianity  is  part  of  the  laws  of  England. 
Somewhat  allied  to  this,  is  the  offence  of  common  swearing 
and  cursing.  Every  laborer,  sailor  or  soldier  profanely 
cursing  or  swearing  shall  forfeit  I  s. ;  every  other  person 
under  the  degree  of  gentleman  2  s. ;  and  every  gentleman  or 
person  of  superior  rank,  5  s. 

A  sixth  species  of  offences  against  God  and  religion,  of 
which  our  books  are  full,  is  witchcraft,  conjuration,  enchant- 
ment or  sorcery.  To  deny  the  possibility,  nay,  actual 
existence,  of  witchcraft  and  sorcery  is  at  once  flatly  to 
contradict  the  revealed  word  of  God,  in  various  passages 
both  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  and  the  thing  itself 
is  a  truth  to  which  every  nation  in  the  world  hath  in  its 
turn  borne  testimony,  either  by  examples  seemingly  well 
attested,  or  by  prohibitory  laws; -which,  at  least,  suppose 
the  possibility  of  commerce  with  evil  spirits.  The  civil  law 
punishes  with  death,  not  only  the  sorcerers  themselves,  but 
also  those  who  consult  them,  imitating  in  the  former,  the 
express  law  of  God,  (Exodus,  xxii.  18)  'Thou  shalt  not  suffer 
a  witch  to  live. '  And  our  own  laws  both  before  and  since 
the  conquest,  have  been  equally  penal;  ranking  this  crime 
in  the  same  class  with  heresy,  and  condemning  both  to  the 
flames." 


March,  1871— ./Etat.  29. 

43.    Sin 

History. — Written  February  28,  1871. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  n,  No.  13,  March,  1871. 


WHAT  is  sin?  This  word  is  more  often  used  to 
define  others  than  it  is  itself  defined.  Indeed 
we  do  not  believe  it  ever  was  defined.  Webster 
says  it  is  "  a  voluntary  departure  of  a  moral  agent  from 
a  known  rule  of  duty,  prescribed  by  God;  any  voluntary 
transgression  of  the  divine  law,  or  violation  of  the  divine 
command."  "A  wicked  act." 

This  definition  involves  two  disputed  points;  first, 
whether  "any  rule  of  duty"  can  be  "known,"  and  secondly, 
whether  it  is  prescribed  by  God.  Indeed,  there  is  a 
third,  which  we  cannot  here  discuss,  viz.,  whether  there  be 
such  a  thing  as  a  "voluntary  agent."  A  definition  must  be 
definite,  but  what  could  be  more  indefinite  than  the  above 
language?  It  is  not  Webster's  fault.  He  has  done  the  best 
he  could  do.  Neither  is  the  fault  with  the  language.  No 
language  could  do  better.  The  difficulty  lies  in  the  notion 
which  it  is  attempted  to  define. 

The  idea  which  the  word  sin  conveys  to  the  mind  is  one 
of  those  vague  generalities  which  though  they  lie  upon  the 
surface  of  the  ocean  of  thought,  yet  when  we  seek  to  grasp 
them  with  the  rational  faculty,  they  prove  to  be  but  bubbles 

10  145 


146  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

which  break  and  disappear  at  the  touch.  Science  cannot 
investigate  sin.  It  can  grapple  with  evil,  because  it  can 
reduce  it  to  pain,  and  pain  to  sensation,  and  sensation  to 
the  vibration  of  the  nerves,  i.e.  to  matter  and  motion,  the 
ultimatum  of  philosophic  analysis.  Here  is  an  idea,  very 
superficial  it  is  true,  but  real  and  certain;  for  id  cerium  est 
quod  cerium  reddi  potest  is  no  less  the  maxim  of  science  than 
of  law.  But  what  can  science  do  with  sin?  It  can  deal 
with  crime,  both  by  statistical  induction  and  logical  deduc- 
tion. It  can  discover  its  laws  and  reduce  them  to  practice, 
the  aim  of  all  science.  But  crime  has  to  do  with  the  effect 
of  human  action.  Sin,  however,  professes  to  declare  the 
motives  of  action,  the  degree  of  intelligence,  and  the  strength 
of  judgment  of  the  agent,  and  the  effect  which  the  act  will 
have,  not  only  upon  men  and  in  this  world  but,  upon  God 
and  angels  in  a  future  world  throughout  all  eternity.  The 
man  who  pronounces  another  a  sinner  presumes  to  declare 
that  he  knows  God's  laws  and  knows  the  other  knows  them 
and  has  voluntarily  violated  them.  What  a  monstrous 
assumption !  This  is  the  quintessence  of  bigotry.  Yet  this, 
if  we  were  to  judge  by  their  actions  as  shown  in  history,  and 
every  day  around  us,  is  the  chief  duty  of  that  class  of  people 
who  are  continually  preaching  charity  as  the  first  cardinal 
virtue.  Is  not  bigotry  the  very  antipode  of  charity? 

But  it  is  coming  to  be  realized  that  those  alleged  principles 
which  science  cannot  take  hold  of  for  the  purpose  of  reduc- 
tion, have  no  existence  in  fact ;  and  so  it  is  with  sin.  It  is  a 
phantom,  like  witchcraft  and  demonism,  and  will  vanish  as 
these  have  vanished,  with  the  next  turn  of  the  wheel  of 
progress.  Yet  reflect  with  what  zeal  and  pertinacity  men 
have  pursued  this  phantom!  Why,  for  twelve  centuries 
they  absolutely  did  nothing  else  but  fight,  with  fanatical 
desperation,  this  imaginary  monster,  and  thousands  are 
still  engaged  in  this  unprofitable  crusade.  Their  struggles 
remind  one  of  the  fabled  battle  of  the  shadows  in  the 
valley  of  Walhalla,  who,  in  their  fierce  onslaughts,  cut  limb 
from  limb,  pierced  one  another  through  and  through,  and 


SIN  147 

hewed  their  bodies  into  pieces,  only  to  rise  up  again  from 
the  bloodless  field,  restored  to  their  original  forms,  and 
renew  with  undiminished  fury  the  fruitless  and  interminable 
carnage. 


March,  1871— JEtat.  29. 

44.   Law 

History. — Written  Feb.  14,  1 87 1 .  This  is  merely 
supplementary  to  the  previous  article  entitled: 
"A  Chapter  of  Law." 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  II,  No.  13,  March,  1871. 


ONE  of  our  subscribers  says  he  has  been  taken  to  task 
because  of  our  article  in  last  issue,  entitled  "A 
Chapter  of  Law."     He  says  it  is  complained  by 
the  "good"  people  of  his  town,  that  we  represented  that 
such  things  are  still  taught  in  .our  schools  of  law,  whereas 
those  in  that  locality  omit  them  in  the  regular  course  of 
instruction. 

We  have  only  to  say  that  we  do  not  pretend  to  know  the 
methods  of  every  petty  law  school  throughout  the  country. 
We  would  naturally  suppose  that  some  professors  would 
have  the  good  sense  to  omit  them,  but  they  cannot  expunge 
them  from  the  books,  nor  prevent  the  students  from  reading 
them;  and  what  students  read  in  their  law  books  they  are 
apt  to  regard  as  law.  But  the  words  quoted  in  that  article 
are  law  in  England  to-day,  so  far  as  the  books  show,  with 
the  exception  of  the  paragraph  relating  to  witchcraft, 
(which  was  inserted  through  inadvertence)  and  we  only 
claimed  that  they  were  the  spirit  of  the  law  of  the  United 

148 


LAW  149 

States.  We  still  insist  that  such  is  the  case,  and  in  proof, 
need  only  refer  to  a  late  decision  of  Judge  Sharswood,  of 
Pa.,  a  great  legal  authority  in  this  country,  and  a  man  who 
has  published  an  American  edition  of  Blackstone  without 
adding  as  much  as  a  note  to  tell  the  American  student  that 
this  nonsense  is  not  the  law  of  his  country,  as  well  as  of 
England — this  man  rendered  a  decision  only  a  year  ago, 
denying  the  validity  of  a  devise  to  a  Liberal  corporation 
on  the  ground  that  "Christianity  is  part  of  the  laws  of  the 
United  States. "  It  is  the  spirit  of  our  law  to  that  extent, 
at  least. 


March,  1871—JEtat.  29. 

45.    Obituary  [of  Mr.  J.  D.  Gangewer] 

History.— Written  Feb.  15,  1871. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  II,  No.  13,  March,  1871. 


IT  becomes  our  painful  duty  to  record  the  death  of  Mr. 
J.  D.  Gangewer,  one  of  the  pioneers  of  our  liberal 
movement  in  Washington,  who  died  on  the  nth  of 
February,  after  a  protracted  illness  from  Bronchial  Con- 
sumption. Mr.  Gangewer,  though  not  one  of  the  original 
instigators  of  the  N.  L.  R.  L.  was  the  very  first  to  respond 
to  its  circular,  and  being  himself  a  practical  compositor 
and  having  been  for  many  years  the  editor  of  a  paper,  he 
began  immediately  to  urge  the  establishment  of  an  organ 
of  the  League,  as  the  best  means  of  doing  good  in  the  cause. 
His  suggestions  were  adopted  and  the  ICONOCLAST  is  the 
result.  Though  not  greatly  blest  with  this  world's  goods, 
Mr.  G.  generously  volunteered  to  do  all  the  composition  up- 
on the  first  two  numbers  without  compensation,  and  would 
doubtless  have  done  more,  but  his  health  failing  he  made  a 
journey  to  the  West  in  the  hope  of  escaping  the  ravages  of 
his  disease,  only  to  return  in  a  few  months  in  a  sinking 
condition  which  terminated  by  death. 

Mr.  Gangewer's  liberal  sentiments  were  not  shared  by  his 
wife  or  his  children,  and  an  attempt  was  made  at  his  funeral, 
by  the  employment  of  a  long-faced  Pharisee  to  preach  his 

150 


OBITUARY  OF^MR.  J.  D.  GANGEWER      151 

funeral  sermon,  to  drag  him  into  ranks  of  the  Christian 
army.  That  he  was  never  wheedled  into  any  such  nonsense 
we  are  prepared,  from  frequent  visits  and  conversations  up 
to  within  a  very  short  time  of  his  death,  to  most  positively 
assert.  On  one  occasion,  not  a  month  before  he  died,  he 
remarked  that  one  of  his  orthodox  friends  called  to  see  him, 
and  mention  having  been  made  of  his  probable  approach- 
ing dissolution,  asked  him  with  customary  impertinence 
whether  he  thought  he  was  prepared  to  die.  "  My  answer 
was,"  said  he,  "I  have  always  been  prepared  to  die;"  and 
he  added,  "this  is  the  only  way  I  can  get  rid  of  their  im- 
portunities; I  am  compelled  to  give  them  short  answers 
or  else  they  will  worry  me  to  death. "  He  always  read  the 
ICONOCLAST  with  pleasure  as  long  as  he  could  summon 
strength,  and  when  the  twelfth  number  reached  him,  though 
too  weak  and  dim  of  eye  to  read  it,  he  was  gratified  to  know 
that  the  enterprise  he  had  been  so  instrumental  in  founding 
had  survived  one  cycle  of  the  seasons,  and  bid  fair  to  live 
on  after  its  founder  should  have  passed  away 


March.  1871—JEtat.  29. 

46.  Doctrinal  Sketches 
[No.  5]     Change  of  Heart 

History. — Written  Feb.  14-25,  1871. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  II,  No.  13,  March,  1871. 


A  BELIEF  in  the  power  of  the  blood  of  Jesus  to  save 
the  soul,  is  something  more  than  any  other  belief. 
It  does  not  alone  consist  in  the  mental  satisfac- 
tion and  rational  conviction  of  a  truth.  It  is  something 
more.  It  is  universally  attended  with  a  supernatural 
transformation  of  the  whole  character  of  the  believer.  This 
miraculous  change  of  character  which  takes  place  is  called 
conversion.  It  is  the  true  test  of  belief.  Unless  it  is 
experienced  it  is  to  be  regarded  certain  that  that  degree  of 
faith  has  not  yet  been  reached  which  is  sufficient  for  the 
salvation  of  the  sinner,  for  "except  a  man  be  born  again  he 
cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God. " 

This  New  Birth  is  one  of  the  mysteries  of  religion.  It  is 
attended  by  a  number  of  characteristic  sentiments,  which 
m  turn  give  rise  to  peculiar  actions,  the  performance  of 
which  furnishes  a  certain  test  of  conversion.  This  will  be 
better  understood  when  we  consider  the  theory  of  the  phe- 
nomenon. It  is  this:  The  sin  which  is  in  every  human 
being  from  his  birth,  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than  the 

152 


CHANGE  OF  HEART  153 

presence  there  of  the  Evil  Spirit,  who,  through  his  wisdom, 
gained  possession  of  the  human  heart  in  the  Garden  of 
Eden.  It  is  thus  Satan  who  sits  enthroned  in  the  hearts  of 
men  and  impels  them  forward  in  their  career  of  wickedness. 
It  is  this  influence  which  controls  all  human  acts.  It 
inspires  man  with  the  love  of  money,  and  moves  him  to 
amass  wealth  and  surround  himself  with  worldly  goods. 
It  makes  him  dig  into  the  earth  for  gold,  and  traffic  in  paltry 
wares  to  obtain  the  means  to  gratify  his  bodily  desires.  It 
instigates  all  labor  and  industry.  "By  the  sweat  of  thy 
brow  shalt  thou  eat  bread  "  was  the  curse  with  which  Adam 
left  Paradise.  Therefore,  all  work  is  base  and  groveling, 
and  is  inspired  by  the  Devil.  He  also,  it  is,  who  fans  the 
unholy  flame  of  love  between  the  sexes,  which  forms  the 
foundation  of  the  family  and  of  society.  Ambition  too, 
springs  from  the  same  foul  source,  and  in  his  lust  for  power, 
man  rushes  on  to  glory,  forms  mighty  states  and  empires, 
and  erects  vast  systems  of  government  and  law  to  preserve 
the  customs  and  institutions  of  society.  And  not  content 
with  all  this  havoc  among  the  original  habits  of  human 
simplicity,  the  wily  foe  decoys  man  on  and  emboldens  him 
to  possess  himself  of  the  secrets  of  the  Almighty.  In  his 
wickedness  and  turpitude,  he  has  dared  to  investigate  the 
universe  of  God  and,  led  on  by  the  wise  serpent,  has  pene- 
trated upward  into  the  celestial  firmament,  and  downward 
into  the  bowels  of  the  earth  to  find  out  the  ways  of  Deity ! 

Such  is  the  depraved  condition  of  the  human  soul  when 
presided  over  by  the  spirit  of  evil.  The  Change  of  Heart, 
of  which  I  am  speaking,  purifies  this  sordid  temple.  The 
process  is  this:  The  instant  the  belief  in  Christ  is  complete 
the  Holy  Spirit  rushes  in,  expels  the  Arch  Fiend,  and  takes 
possession  of  the  soul.  It  drives  out  all  these  base  and  un- 
holy sentiments,  and  fills  the  soul  with  new  thoughts  and 
nobler  feelings.  The  utter  unworthiness  of  all  material 
things  becomes  apparent ;  the  passions  are  subdued  and  their 
influence  destroyed.  The  sublime  idea  of  a  life  of  eternal 
bliss  renders  contemptible  the  concerns  of  an  ephemeral 


154  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

life  on  earth.  The  new  made  being  hates  the  world  with 
an  unutterable  hate ;  compared  with  his  love  of  Jesus,  that 
which  he  bears  toward  his  wife  and  children  is  little  else 
than  hate.  For  the  sinner,  he  experiences  only  the  most 
intense  feelings  of  execration  which  always  manifest  them- 
selves, if  not  forcibly  prevented,  in  efforts  to  destroy  him. 
It  is  this  righteous  indignation  which  so  justly  burns  the 
wretched  heretics  at  the  stake,  or  tortures  them  with  the 
rack  and  thumbscrew,  for  the  good  of  their  souls.  The 
man  who  has  been  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost  scorns  the 
carnal  desires  and  persecutes  the  flesh.  Thousands  refuse 
to  marry  and  shut  themselves  up  in  dark  and  humid  cells 
to  conquer  passion,  and  feast  the  spirit  in  fervent  contempla- 
tion of  the  glories  of  Heaven.  Pleasure  is  shunned  and 
forbidden  by  the  redeemed  soul ;  the  merry  sports  of  children 
are  curtailed  and  denied,  while  the  frivolity  and  hilarity  of 
youth,  the  wicked  dance,  the  fascinating  card  table,  and 
the  alluring  stage  are  condemned  and  exorcised  with  the 
most  awful  anathemas.  All  amusement  receives  the  holy 
frown  of  the  saint,  and  naught  becomes  worthy  but  inces- 
sant prayer  and  praise,  and  perpetual  devotion  to  Almighty 
God.  Everything  impure  and  unholy  in  literature,  from 
the  romance  of  natural  passion  to  the  materialistic  volume  of 
physical  science,  receives  its  merited  rebuke.  The  Christ- 
ian's literature  is  confined  to  his  Bible  and  a  few  holy  books, 
such  as  the  lives  of  saints,  and  stories  of  holy  children.  An 
unconquerable  aversion  and  invincible  antagonism  to 
everything  which  is  known  as  secular  or  natural,  are  the 
distinguishing  characteristics  of  the  soul  which  has  been 
"born  of  water  and  of  the  spirit. " 

In  our  age  when  the  wicked  secularism  of  society  and  of 
government  forbid  both  asceticism  and  persecution,  this 
holy  renewal  of  the  heart  of  men  displays  itself  in  a  some- 
what different  channel.  Freed  from  the  prison  of  sin  the 
happy  soul  finds  vent  for  its  emotions  in  wild  hallelujahs 
of  praise  and  unrestrained  shouts  of  delirious  joy.  In  these 
sanctifying  outbursts  of  religious  enthusiasm,  the  body  is 


CHANGE  OF   HEART  155 

oftentimes  thrown  into  violent  convulsionary  spasms,  or 
falls  prostrate  and  paralysed  under  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  will  form  the  subject  of  my 
next  sketch. 


March,  1871—JEtat.  29. 

47.    Review  of  the  Science  of  Evil,  or 

First  Principles  of  Human  Action, 

by  Joel  Moody,  Topeka,  1871 

History. — The  book  was  received  by  the  League 
Jan.  31,  1871,  and  turned  over  to  me.  I  read  it 
somewhat  carefully  and  wrote  this  review.  Feb.  26, 
1871. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  II,  No.  13,  March,  1871. 


A  BOOK  written   by  Joel  Moody,  and  bearing  the 
above  title,  has  found  its  way  to  us  from  Topeka, 
Kansas,  where  it  was  published,  and  is  said  to 
be  the  first  book  published  in  that  State.     If  so,  Kansas 
has  made  a  good  beginning  in  this  direction.     The  work  is 
remarkable  in  so  many  respects  that  we  feel  justified  in 
giving  it  somewhat  more  space  than  is  our  custom  with  new 
books. 

The  volume  contains  342  pages,  has  rather  a  fancy  bind- 
ing, is  printed  in  clear  type  and  on  fine  paper.  Being  the 
first  edition,  and,  as  they  claim,  the  first  publication  of  the 
firm  of  Crane  &  Byron,  the  somewhat  unusual  number 
of  typographical  errors  it  contains  may  be,  to  some  extent, 
excused.  Besides  its  typographical  errors,  we  detect  a 
number  of  grammatical  and  rhetorical  imperfections,  which 

156 


MOODY'S  SCIENCE  OF  EVIL  157 

are  evidently  the  author's,  with  an  occasional  misstatement 
of  fact,  arising  from  his  ignorance  or  negligence,  respecting 
certain  matters  which  he  desires  to  employ  in  illustration, 
(as,  for  example,  on  page  67  where  he  states  that  the  path  of 
a  projectile  is  "hyperbolic"  instead  of  "parabolic,")  and 
which  show  that  he  is  less  exact  in  his  details  than  he  is 
correct  in  his  conclusions.  He  is  withal  inclined  to  be  a 
little  wild  and  flighty  in  his  combinations,  and  not  especially 
dignified  in  his  style.  This  much  we  say  frankly,  but  we 
as  frankly  confess  that  this  is  all  we  can  say  in  derogation  of 
Mr.  Moody's  book.  These  imperfections  are  all  upon  the 
surface  and  will  not  probably  be  detected  by  one  in  twenty 
of  his  readers.  When  we  come  to  the  substance,  to  the 
subject  matter  of  the  work,  we  have  nothing  to  offer  but 
praise  and  encomium. 

The  great  aim  of  the  writer,  in  which  he  has  most  admir- 
ably succeeded,  is  to  show  that  what  men  call  evil  is  in 
reality  no  evil  at  all,  in  the  sense  in  which  the  term  is  popu- 
larly employed,  no  violation  of  natural  laws,  but  only  the 
result  of  conditions  existing  in  the  world,  which  can  never  be 
wholly  changed  or  destroyed.  The  pain  and  suffering  of 
mankind  and  of  the  animal  kingdom  is  not  the  result  of 
disorder  and  anarchy  in  nature;  it  is  the  necessary  result 
of  the  regular  laws  of  nature  operating  upon  these  beings 
as  they  exist.  He  successfully  controverts  the  opinions 
even  of  such  thinkers  as  Herbert  Spencer  and  Theodore 
Parker  upon  this  point.  Animal  life  must  have  pain  as  one 
and  the  chief  condition  of  its  existence.  Without  it  the 
creature  would  never  eat  or  drink,  and  would  immediately 
die.  This  idea  is  most  ably  carried  through  the  lower 
and  up  into  the  highest  affections  and  faculties  of  animate 
existence,  to  man  in  his  social  relations.  Evil  can  indeed 
be  mitigated.  Conditions  can  be  molded  by  intelligence, 
so  that  the  operations  of  natural  laws  will  inflict  less  and 
less  suffering,  but  only  infinite  wisdom  and  power  could 
wholly  remove  it.  The  evil  we  suffer  is  subjective,  it  lies 
in  our  ignorance,  not  in  the  thing  which  inflicts  it.  Hence 


158  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

it  follows,  that  all  blame  is  nugatory,  unphilosophical, 
foolish.  Remove  ignorance,  spread  knowledge;  this  alone 
will  mitigate  evil.  Crimes  are  inherited  or  induced  by  edu- 
cation and  circumstances.  It  is  silly  to  punish  them ;  they 
should  only  be  prevented.  Bad  temper  results  from  bad 
digestion;  apply  to  your  physician  who  will  prescribe  a 
change  of  diet,  not  to  your  clergyman  who  will  only  tell  you 
you  need  a  change  of  heart.  The  author  has  interwoven 
copious  and  apt  illustrations  from  history,  science,  politics, 
and  especially  religion,  some  of  which  latter,  we  shall  take 
the  liberty  of  reproducing  in  our  columns  from  time  to 
time. 

There  is  a  vast  deal  more  which  we  would  be  glad  to  refer 
to,  but  our  space  forbids.  We  recommend  the  book, 
however,  to  everybody  as  not  only  a  philosophical  and 
practically  scientific  treatise  on  a  vital  subject,  but  as  a 
truly  liberal  work,  breathing  the  spirit  of  free  inquiry, 
boldly  assailing  the  old  fortresses  of  prejudice  and  error, 
and  laying  bare  with  an  unsparing  hand,  the  pernicious 
dogmas  of  creeds  and  religions.  It  is,  at  the  same  time, 
candid  and  respectful,  giving  every  influence  its  due  weight 
and  its  proper  place  in  history.  Theology  has  been  a 
necessity,  it  is  the  mother  of  science;  it  springs  from  an 
effort  of  the  primitive  mind  in  its  limited  circle  of  knowledge 
to  solve  the  mysteries  of  nature.  What  more  is  science? 
Science  is  the  new  theology,  its  god  is  force.  "That  the 
freedom  of  science  will  one  day  take  the  place  of  theologic 
tyranny,  and  that  the  scientific  lecture  will  take  the  place 
of  the  Sunday  sermon,  is  a  fact  shortly  to  be  realized.  It 
is  a  fact  already  knocking  at  the  door  of  the  church. " 


April,  1871  —JEtat.  29. 

48.    Hope 

History. — Written  in  March,  1871.  The 
thought  running  through  this  editorial  is  the  one 
that  finally  caused  me  to  cease  trying  to  combat 
error  openly,  and  convinced  me  that  the  successful 
way  to  remove  it  was  the  substitution  of  scien- 
tific truth  incompatible  with  it 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  II,  No.  14,  April,  1871. 


IT  is  fortunate  for  the  progress  of  humanity  that  it  is  a 
vegetable  rather  than  a  mechanical  growth.  If  a 
house  becomes  old  and  rotten,  it  must  be  razed  to 
the  ground  and  its  very  foundations  removed  before  a  new 
one  can  be  erected  in  its  place;  but  when  a  plant  becomes 
blighted,  and  its  leaves  and  stem  wither  and  die,  a  new 
plant  pushes  upward  from  beneath,  and  gently  laying  off 
the  old  one,  supplies  its  place.  The  growth  of  human  ideas 
follows  the  analogy  of  the  plant  rather  than  of  the  house. 
Opinions,  and  with  them  customs  and  institutions,  change 
and  succeed  each  other  from  beneath  rather  than  from 
above.  Liberty  of  intellect  is  the  result  of  slow  subterranean 
influences.  The  theological  myths  can  only  be  set  aside 
by  the  power  of  scientific  truths  repugnant  to  them.  These 
truths  need  not  come  in  the  form  of  weapons  aimed  at 

159 


I6o  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

theology.  It  is  perhaps  best  that  they  should  not.  When 
they  do  thus  announce  their  mission  theology  is  forewarned 
and  forewarned  is  forearmed.  But  when  they  grow  up 
silently  within  the  camps  of  religious  beliefs,  the  latter 
soon  find  themselves  flanked,  and  their  retreat  cut  off.  The 
same  individual  finds  himself  a  believer  in  both  Genesis 
and  Geology.  But  the  testimony  of  these  is  utterly  in- 
compatible. The  only  reason  why  both  can  stand  in  the 
same  mind  at  the  same  time,  is  because  it  makes  no  compari- 
son of  the  two.  It  fears  and  shirks  the  task.  But  the  next 
generation  will  be  bolder,  and  on  the  first  comparison  the 
perishable  manuscript  will  yield  to  the  indelible  rock,  and 
theology  will  yield  to  science. 

Liberals  are  apt  to  suppose  that  because  little  is  done  to 
overthrow  the  errors  of  theology,  they  will  never  be  over- 
thrown; and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  religionists,  viewing 
the  comparative  insignificance  of  the  anti-religious  move- 
ment, are  flattering  themselves  that  their  cause  is  secure. 
Both  are  mistaken.  The  former  give  too  great  prominence 
to  the  forces  of  demolition ;  the  latter  greatly  underrate  the 
forces  of  reconstruction.  While  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  all  efforts  to  expose  the  errors  and  define  the>  wrongs 
of  narrow  creeds  and  barbaric  superstitions,  are,  to  a  certain 
extent,  effectual,  still  the  real  comparative  good  which  is, 
in  point  of  fact,  accomplished  in  this  way  is  but  a  small 
percentage  of  the  whole  sum  of  the  civilizing  and  enlighten- 
ing power  which  is  being  perpetually  brought  to  bear  by  the 
combined  agencies  of  this  age.  Their  effects  are  not  mani- 
fested in  any  sudden  transformations.  Like  all  the  opera- 
tions of  nature,  they  are  slow  and  gradual.  We  seldom  see 
systems  torn  down,  or  customs  rooted  out,  or  institutions 
abolished,  or  creeds  abandoned,  until,  by  the  slow,  trans- 
forming power  of  these  invisible  agencies,  they  have  ceased 
to  be  effectual,  or  become  no  longer  tolerable.  The  process 
is  a  dilution  rather  than  a  deletion,  a  purification  rather 
than  a  purgation.  It  is  perceptible  only  when  we  look 
backward;  it  is  rapid  only  by  contrast.  But  he  that  will 


HOPE  161 

carefully  compare  the  nineteenth  with  the  sixteenth,  seven- 
teenth or  even  the  eighteenth  century,  will  see  that  the 
progress  of  mental  liberty  is  a  mighty,  an  irresistible  tide. 

Let  us  not  then  be  discouraged  at  the  apathy  of  some  who 
profess  to  be  liberal.  Unless  they  soon  awake,  when  they 
do  they  will  find  themselves  behind  instead  of  in  advance 

of  the  age. 
it 


April,  1871—JEtat.  29. 

49.    Doctrinal  Sketches 

[No.  6]    The  Trinity 
History. — Written  March  24,  1871. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  II,  No.  14,  April,  1871. 


GOD  is  triune.  He  is  three  at  the  same  time  that  He 
is  one.  He  is  at  once  Father,  Son  and  Holy  Ghost. 
The  Son  (Jesus  Christ)  was  begotten  by  God;  the 
Holy  Ghost  proceeded  from  God,  and  yet  the  Son  is  not  only 
God,  but  the  whole  of  God,  and  so  is  also  the  Holy  Ghost. 
These  three  persons  are  not  only  "neither  blended  nor 
separated, "  but  they  are  both  blended  and  separated.  The 
Son  is  just  as  old  as  the  Father,  though  begotten  of  Him ; 
the  Holy  Ghost  is  also  eternal  with  God,  though  proceeded 
from  Him.  So  also  are  the  Son  and  Holy  Ghost  both  equal 
in  essence  to  the  Father,  and  all  three  are  uncreated. 

Now,  I  am  aware  that  some  are  disposed  to  cavil  at  this 
Athanasian  creed,  which  is  to-day  the  creed  of  all  our 
churches.  They  say  it  sets  forth  impossibilities,  incom- 
patible facts  and  contradictory  assertions.  Their  error 
arises  from  their  education.  They  are  taught  in  the  sordid 
schools  of  science  and  materialism,  and  they  forget  that 
their  narrow  rules  do  not  apply  to  religion.  They  have 

162 


THE   TRINITY  163 

but  to  remember  that  "all  things  are  possible  with  God." 
That  foundation  principle  which  philosophers  have  placed 
at  the  beginning  of  all  philosophy,  and  to  which  they  have 
given  the  name  of  the  doctrine  of  non-contradiction,  which 
affirms  that  a  thing  cannot  both  be  and  not  be  at  the  same 
time, — that  doctrine  even,  must  give  way  at  the  will  of  the 
Almighty,  and  it  is  ignored  and  violated  in  the  character  of 
the  Godhead.  The  axiom  of  mathematics,  that  the  whole 
is  greater  than  any  of  its  parts,  must  also  stand  aside  before 
the  omnipotent  edict  of  the  Council  of  Nice.  As  God  has 
no  law  for  his  actions  but  his  own  free-will  and  pleasure,  so 
there  are  no  conditions  assigned  for  the  facts  in  his  king- 
dom. It  is  above  all  conditions  and  the  source  from  which 
all  conditions  emanate.  The  natural  laws  which  we  learn, 
and  which  govern  the  physical  world  are  but  the  conditions 
which  God  has  seen  fit  to  affix  to  this  part  of  His  universe 
at  this  period  of  its  existence,  and  which  He  may  at  any 
moment  abrogate,  annul,  alter  or  reverse,  whenever  He 
shall  deem  consistent  with  His  most  sovereign  pleasure. 
It  would  be  perfectly  easy  and  legitimate  for  Him  to  decree 
at  any  time  that  substances  should  fall  from,  instead  of 
towards  the  center  of  the  earth,  or  that  twice  two  should 
make  six,  instead  of  four.  And  if  such  things  are  possible 
in  our  own  material  sphere,  what  occasion  is  there  for  mor- 
tals to  so  blasphemously  deny,  in  respect  to  the  Godhead 
itself,  that  three  times  one  make  one  ? 

To  understand  the  doctrines  of  theology  it  is  absolutely 
indispensable  to  get  rid  entirely  of  the  prevailing  concep- 
tions of  truth.  Truth  is  not  any  eternal,  absolute,  uncon- 
ditioned thing.  It  depends  wholly  upon  the  will  of  Deity. 
Whatever  God  wills  to  exist,  exists;  whatever  He  wills  to 
be  done,  is  done.  With  the  application  of  this  principle  to 
the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  all  the  difficulties  which  other- 
wise surround  and  becloud  it,  at  once  disappear. 

The  doctrine  of  Transubstantiation  will  form  the  subject 
of  my  next  sketch. 


April,  1871  —JEtat.  29. 

50.    Scraps  of  Ecclesiastical  History 

No.  3.    Church  Councils 
History. — Written  March  1 6, 1871. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  II,  No.  14,  April,  1871. 


A  characteristic  of  church  proceedings  has  been  its 
councils,  of  which  there  have  been  twenty  CEcu- 
menical,  or  universal,  whose  decisions  in  mat- 
ters of  faith  and  doctrine  are  held  to  be  infallible — though 
they  have  contradicted  each  other  a  hundred  times — 
and  many  inferior  ones,  whose  rules  have  generally  also 
the  force  of  law.  I  cannot  here,  of  course,  enumerate 
them  all,  but  as  they  serve  to  illustrate  the  character  of 
ecclesiastical  history,  I  venture  to  refer  briefly  to  those 
which  have  occupied  the  most  prominent  places  in  it. 
Passing  over  that  described  in  the  Acts  (chap,  xv),  which 
met  at  Jerusalem,  in  reference  to  the  relation  of  Christianity 
to  the  Mosaic  law, — but  which  does  not  appear  to  have 
decided  anything — the  first  great  Council  was  that  of  Nice, 
in  325  A.D. 

This  Council  was  called  by  the  emperor  Constantine,  to 
condemn  the  doctrines  of  one  Arius,  who  denied  the  co- 
eternal  existence  and  the  identity  of  Christ  with  God,  and 
to  put  down  other  heresies.  Arius'  doctrines  were  con- 

164 


CHURCH  COUNCILS  165 

demned,  with  but  two  opposing  votes,  and  he  was  banished 
to  Illyricum.  The  Arians  were  subsequently  terribly  per- 
secuted, and  eventually  extinguished,  though  they  have 
been  resurrected  in  modern  times  under  the  name  of  Socin- 
ians,  of  which  Sir  Isaac  Newton  was  a  member,  and  form 
to-day,  as  Unitarians,  the  liberal  wing  of  the  Christian 
church.  Singularly  enough,  all  this  fierce  and  bloody 
dispute  turned  upon  one  letter,  (the  Greek  iota — our  i) 
for  in  that  language  the  word  by  which  Arms  described  the 
relation  of  the  Son  to  the  Father  was  homoiousia,  meaning 
similarity  of  essence,  while  the  word  used  by  the  majority 
of  the  Council  was  homoousia,  which  means  identity  of 
essence. 

The  Council  of  Laodicaea,  held  in  the  year  363,  was  the 
one  at  which  it  was  decided  which  books  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments  were  canonical.  Of  the  Old  Testament  they 
took  all  the  Hebrew  writings  they  could  find,  (they  are  all 
about  alike)  and  picked  out  such  as  they  thought  would 
support  Christianity,  and  voted  these  to  be  inspired  and 
the  rest  not.  The  New  Testament  was  created  here.  Out 
of  some  scores  of  manuscripts  which  had  been  written  about 
the  famous  person  Christ  who,  it  was  alleged,  lived  and  did 
so  many  marvels  three  centuries  and  a  half  previous, 
(long  enough  in  those  simple  times  to  make  him  a  hero,  the 
same  as  Hercules  and  Ulysses)  they  either  selected  out  the 
four  Gospels  which  they  ascribed  to  the  disciples  Matthew, 
Mark,  Luke  and  John;  or  else  they  took  parts  of  several 
manuscripts  which  appeared  to  them  to  harmonize  best, 
or  which  they  could  best  make  harmonious  by  amending 
them  themselves,  and  putting  these  with  other  documents, 
epistles  and  sermons  then  existing,  they  got  up  the  book 
which  we  call  the  New  Testament.  This  they  voted  to  be 
of  divine  origin,  and  all  the  rest  to  be  profane  and  hereti- 
cal, and  ordered  them  to  be  burned;  so  that  most  of  them 
perished  then  and  there,  for  want  of  other  copies  in  exist- 
ence. A  few  copies,  however,  have  been  handed  down,  and 
constitute  what  is  called  the  Apocryphal  New  Testament, 


166  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

a  most  interesting  collection,  as  serving  to  illustrate  this 
point. 

The  Council  which  met  at  Constantinople  in  879  erased 
the  wordfilioque  from  the  creed,  in  the  article  on  the  "Pro- 
cession of  the  Holy  Ghost, "  and  this  split  the  great  unwieldy 
church  in  two,  and  ever  since,  the  Greek  Church  has 
remained  distinct  from  the  Roman.  The  great  question,  as 
is  seen,  was  whether  the  Holy  Ghost  proceeds  from  the 
Father  only,  or  from  the  Father  and  the  Son.  As  at  the 
first  Council  of  Nice  it  was  decided  that  the  Son  was  un- 
created and  co-eternal  with  God,  so  the  Roman  Church 
held  now  that  the  Holy  Ghost  was  in  like  manner  eternal, 
and  emanated  from  both  Father  and  Son.  And  also,  as 
the  heretical  Arms  believed  that  Christ  was  in  some  way 
inferior  to  God,  and  had  been  born  from  him,  so  the  less 
orthodox  Greeks  now  maintained  that  the  Holy  Ghost 
proceeds  from  God  alone  as  the  superior  being  and  source  of 
all  divine  influences.  In  trying  to  decide  this  question  there 
were  bloody  wars  and  persecutions,  till  at  last  they  agreed  to 
disagree  and  remain  forever  separated  in  a  spirit  of  unmixed 
Christian  hate  and  enmity. 

I  shall  speak  of  some  of  the  more  modern  Councils  in  my 
next  article. 


May,  1871—JEtat.  29. 

51.    Organization 

History. — Written  in  March,  1871.  I  had 
probably  forgotten  that  I  had  written  another 
editorial  with  the  same  title,  and  just  a  year 
previously.  See  Vol.  I,  No.  2,  April,  1870  (supra 
p.  56). 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  II,  No.  15,  May,  1871. 


ORGANIZATION  is  the  superstructure  of  our  civiliza- 
tion. It  is  the  distinguishing  feature  between  man 
the  low  savage  and  man  the  cultured,  intellectual 
being.  The  great  organizations  in  which  we  live — the 
governments  of  the  day — and  the  civilization  which  has 
grown  out  of  them,  stand  as  living  monuments  to  the  power 
of  combined  human  effort.  Organization  is  the  key-note 
of  the  age.  In  all  branches  of  industry  and  thought  it  is 
the  lever  of  success.  Every  workshop,  every  factory,  every 
hive  of  industry  is  an  organization.  Every  newspaper  and 
its  subscribers  are  an  organization,  and  withal  a  most 
powerful  one.  The  force  of  united  effort  may  be  for  good 
or  for  evil ;  it  may  exert  itself  on  behalf  of  liberty,  peace  and 
brotherhood,  as  well  as  for  slavery,  tyranny,  and  war.  It 
may  be  used  to  discover  and  disseminate  new  truths,  or  to 
sustain  and  perpetuate  old  and  worn-out  errors  and  super- 
stitions. The  predominant  organized  theology  of  Chris- 
tendom, with  which  we  are  dealing,  affords  a  striking 

167 


168  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

illustration  of  this  fact.  But  this  is  no  argument  against 
organization.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  another  evidence  of 
its  potency.  Though  it  may  serve  an  evil  master,  it  always 
serves  him  well.  Think  of  an  organization  holding  together, 
in  all  nations  and  all  climes,  190,000,000  of  human  beings! 
Such  is  the  Catholic  Christian  Church.  And  each  of  the 
Protestant  churches  is  equally  illustrative 

Yet,  amid  all  these  staring  facts,  there  are,  in  one  of  the 
most  civilized  portions  of  the  world,  thousands,  perhaps 
millions,  of  men  and  women  whose  purpose  with  respect  to 
these  superannuated  creeds  is  single,  but  who  are  making 
comparatively  no  united  effort  towards  its  accomplishment. 
With  the  exception  of  the  societies  of  the  Spiritualists 
(which  are  doing  an  immense  work),  and  a  few  local  associa- 
tions, such  as  those  at  Toledo  and  Salem,  O.,  there  is  no 
live  Liberal  organization  in  America. 

They  are  doing  better  than  this  in  England,  for  there  are 
many  connected  societies,  all  apparently  in  healthy  condi- 
tion. Germany  is  notoriously  "infidel,"  but  its  heresy 
does  not  seem  to  take  an  organized  form.  Italy  and  Spain 
are  at  last  awakening  from  the  torpor  of  Christian  super- 
stition. Unhappy  France  is  now  beneath  the  cloud  of 
civil  war,  but  will  soon  emerge,  we  may  hope,  instructed 
and  purified  by  misfortune. 

These  are  the  fields  for  Liberal  work.  The  Rationalists 
of  the  Old  World  and  the  New  should  be  united  in  practical 
organization.  The  spirit  of  free  thought  is  universal ;  it  is 
exclusive  to  no  country,  it  knows  no  nationality.  But  let 
us  perform  our  part  at  home.  In  every  village  containing 
a  half-a-dozen  Liberals  there  is  sufficient  intellect  and  ability 
to  form  a  social,  an  intellectual  or  a  working  society  (public 
or  private),  and  such  societies  could  easily  make  known 
their  work  through  the  existing  Liberal  papers. 

We  do  not  believe  that  men  are  totally  depraved — that  it 
is  more  difficult  to  teach  truth,  science  and  virtue,  than  it  is 
to  inculcate  falsehood  and  theology.  At  all  events  let  the 
experiment  be  tried. 


May,  1871—JEtat.  29. 

52.    One  Murderer  in  Hell 

History. — Written  March  25,  1871.  Rulloff 
and  Grady  seem  to  be  aliases.  I  find  the  latter 
name  alone  mentioned  in  connection  with  this 
editorial  squib,  and  "at  this  distance  of  time"  I 
am  unable  to  reconcile  matters.  The  newspapers 
spelled  the  former  name  as  above,  but  probably 
there  should  be  only  one  / — Ruloff. 

Ruloff  was  no  doubt  an  interesting  character. 
In  an  article  by  Dr.  Ely  Van  de  Warker  on  "The 
Relations  of  Women  to  Crime, "  contributed  to  the 
Popular  Science  Monthly  for  November,  1875,  or 
four  years  after  Ruloff  s  execution,  this  statement 
occurs:  "Take  such  an  instance  as  that  of  Ruloff, 
to  whom  Nature  had  given  the  crude  material  of  a 
magnificent  mind.  In  spite  of  the  terrible  potency 
of  his  criminal  ideas,  a  longing  for  a  nobler  and 
higher  life  existed  within  him  in  sufficient  force 
to  give  direction  to  considerable  self-culture.  He 
stole,  and  would  kill  without  remorse  any  one  who 
stood  between  him  and  his  object,  simply  to  gain 
money  to  enable  him  to  follow  his  studies."1  Dr. 

1  Popular  Science  Monthly,  Vol.  VIII,  November,  1875,  p.  15. 

169 


170  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

Van  der  Warker  seems  to  have  had  some  expert 
knowledge  of  the  case. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  II,  No.  15,  May,  1871. 


THERE  is  no  doubt  that  Rulloff  is  in  Hell.     He  did  n't 
make  any  profession  of  religion,  he  did  n't  call  for  a 
priest,  he  did  n't  sing  a  psalm  nor  shout  a  hallelujah. 
He  died  as  he  had  lived — a  skeptic  and  a  misanthrope.     The 
ignorant  newspaper  editors  say  he  died  a  Stoic,  but  this  is  a 
worse  reproach  to  Zeno  than  it  is  to  Christ  to  say,  as  they 
always  do,  that  every  other  murderer  who  is  hung  dies  a 
Christian.     Think  of  comparing  Seneca,  Aurelius  or  Epic- 
tetus  with  this  crime-stained  villain!  ' 

We  do  not  doubt  that  Rulloff 's  "infidelity"  will  form  the 
subject  of  a  thousand  homilies  and  sermons,  as  a  dreadful 
warning  of  the  terrible  end  to  which  it  must  inevitably  lead. 
We  believe,  to  say  nothing  of  right,  that  it  is  sheer  foolish- 
ness to  hang  anybody.  When  a  man  might  be  added  to  the 
number  of  producers  of  the  country,  and  thus  be  of  far  more 
value  than  any  lawyer  or  merchant,  who  produces  nothing, 
(not  to  mention  the  clergy,  who  not  only  produce  nothing, 
but  are  general  public  nuisances),  it  is  not  only  short-sighted 
and  impolitic  to  kill  him,  but  it  borders  on  the  idiotic.  As 
well  might  a  farmer  kill  his  ox  because  it  is  unruly,  instead 
of  yoking  it  to  a  plough.  But  we  did  not  set  out  to  make 
an  argument  on  capital  punishment.  If  any  one  should  be 
hung  Rulloff  should.  He  evidently  was  not  a  safe  animal 
to  be  loose.  He  was  vicious.  His  parents,  and  perhaps  his 
remote  ancestors,  had  bequeathed  him  this  legacy.  And 
what  he  had  not  inherited  his  teachers  (whether  they  wished 
to  or  not),  had  instilled  into  him.  This  is  the  case  with  all 
dangerous  persons.  They  should  be  shut  up  and  set  to 
work.  But  Rulloff's  case  is  extremely  peculiar.  He  was  a 
scholar,  an  "infidel,"  a  skeptic,  perhaps  an  atheist.  His  is 
therefore  a  remarkable,  an  exceptional,  a  wholly  anomalous 


case.  It  is,  in  fact,  the  only  instance  within  our  recollec- 
tion of  a  victim  of  the  gallows  who  did  not  die  a  happy, 
rejoicing,  psalm-singing  Christian.  When  salvation  is  so 
cheap  it  is  no  wonder  this  is  so,  or  that  crime  is  so  prevalent. 
What  a  fool  Rulloff  was  to  sacrifice  his  eternal  interest  to  his 
honor! 


May,  1871—JEtat.  29. 

53.     Doctrinal  Sketches 

[No.  7]     Transubstantiation 
History. — Written  May  14,  1871. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  n,  No.  15,  May,  1871. 


WHENEVER  the  Eucharist,  or  Lord's  supper,  is 
celebrated,  a  remarkable  phenomenon  takes 
place.  The  bread  which  is  used  is  changed  into 
the  body  of  Christ,  and  the  wine  into  his  blood.  This  is 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  things  connected  with  Chris- 
tianity. That  it  actually  does  transpire,  however,  does  not 
admit  of  a  doubt.  It  has  been  the  practice  of  the  Church 
to  celebrate  the  last  supper  of  Christ  for  eighteen  and  a  half 
centuries,  and  in  no  single  instance  has  it  been  known  to 
fail.  There  have  been  those,  it  is  true,  who  have  from 
time  to  time  manifested  a  disposition  to  cavil  at  this  wonder- 
ful doctrine,  but  they  have  been  at  length  effectually 
silenced  by  the  decree  of  the  Council  of  Trent,  by  Martin 
Luther's  arguments,  and  by  the  "Thirty-Nine  Articles." 
No  one  now  thinks  of  questioning  the  fact  that  he  who 
partakes  of  the  Communion  Sacrament  is  eating  Christ's 
body  and  drinking  his  blood.  But  nevertheless,  as  man  is 
not  omniscient,  and  cannot  be  supposed  to  comprehend  all 

172 


TRANSUBSTANTIATION  173 

the  methods  and  workings  of  such  divine  mysteries;  and 
yet,  as  all  are  anxious  that  the  truth  should  be  taught 
respecting  such  all-absorbing  matters,  there  have,  naturally 
enough,  been  some  slight  differences  of  opinion  concerning 
the  minor  details  of  this  doctrine,  whose  general  truth  has 
been  admitted  by  all.  These  slight  irregularities  of  the 
human  mind  have  not  been  of  a  serious  character,  only 
having  occasioned  the  death,  by  shooting  or  burning,  of  a 
few  hundred  thousand  men  and  women  who  were  unwilling 
to  agree  with  the  most  powerful  party  where  the  controver- 
sies arose.  The  distinctions  between  the  real  presence  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  and  Greek  churches,  the  Lutheran 
impanation,  the  efficacious  presence  of  Calvin  and  the  Re- 
formed Lutheran  church,  and  the  spiritual  presence  of  the 
Anglican  and  other  Protestant  churches,  are  distinctions 
wholly  without  difference,  since  it  matters  not  whether  the 
bread  and  wine  have  been  miraculously  changed  into  flesh 
and  blood,  or  whether  the  former  still  exist  in  connection 
with  and  in  addition  to  the  latter,  or  whether  the  flesh  and 
blood  come  into  the  bread  and  wine  in  emanations  from 
Christ's  body  in  Heaven,  or  whether  that  flesh  and  blood 
be  spiritual  or  material,  as  long  as  all  equally  agree  that 
they  are  actually  and  really  there ;  and  this,  as  I  remarked, 
no  one  now  assumes  to  deny.  No  one,  I  say, — I  mean  no 
Christian.  There  are  heretics  now  as  always, — infidels, 
scoffers,  materialists,  scientists,  who  in  the  face  of  the  terrible 
prospect  of  being  eternally  burned  in  unquenchable  flames 
for  their  opinions  dare  still  to  maintain  that  these  things 
cannot  be;  that  it  is  not  natural,  forsooth,  for  bread  to  be 
suddenly  changed  into  meat,  or  wine  into  blood:  that  it  is 
physically  impossible,  as  they  say,  for  both  to  exist  in  equal 
quantities  and  occupy  the  same  space  as  one  had  done ;  and 
who  even  assert,  in  a  spirit  of  impious  ridicule,  that  it  would 
not  seem  to  be  an  approved  Christian  practice  to  eat  human 
flesh  and  drink  human  blood,  much  less  that  of  an  incarnate 
deity.  Of  these  I  need  say  nothing,  for  "verily  they  shall 
have  their  reward." 


174  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

This  doctrine  of  Transubstantiation  is  one  of  the  most 
important  of  the  Christian  religion.  It  enables  the  Chris- 
tian, while  his  soul  is  communing  with  that  of  the  Saviour 
to  obtain  a  physical  perception  of  Him  as  well,  to  literally 
get  a  taste  of  His  qualities ;  to  chew  his  muscles  and  swallow 
him  bodily  into  his  stomach,  and  thus  fully  appreciate  His 
divine  qualities.  There  is  margin  for  discussion  as  to 
whether  the  bread  and  wine  which  is  not  consumed  is  thus 
converted,  the  Catholics  maintaining  that  it  is;  and  also 
as  to  the  point  in  the  physical  process  of  mastication, 
deglutition  and  digestion,  at  which  the  divine  quality 
disappears  and  the  corporeal  substance  is  restored.  On  this 
latter  point  Pope  Innocent  III  has  strenuously  maintained 
and  supported  by  elaborate  argument,  that,  should  the 
communicant,  after  partaking  of  the  sacrament,  be  suddenly 
seized  with  a  violent  dysentery,  the  character  of  the  excre- 
ment would  still  be  sanctified.  This  point  may  therefore  be 
considered  settled.  A  case  occurred  in  which,  after  the 
bread  had  been  duly  sanctified  by  the  priest,  a  hungry  dog 
obtained  access  to  the  Host  and  devoured  it,  but  it  is  not 
known  whether  any  eminent  divine  has  ever  offered  to  the 
world  any  explanation  of  the  particular  effect  which  such 
an  act  must  have  produced  upon  the  dog. 

In  my  next  sketch  I  will  endeavor  to  give  an  idea  of  the 
doctrine  of  the  Immaculate  Conception. 


June  (?),  1871  —Mtat.  29. 

54.     Immigration  Statistics 

History. — Written  Feb.  10-13,  1871.  The  en- 
tire series  of  tables  of  immigration  statistics  from 
its  inception  to  the  year  1881  was  compiled  by  me 
in  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Statistics.  These 
tables  were  regularly  published  annually  and 
sometimes  monthly  in  the  reports  of  the  Bureau, 
and  I  have  never  regarded  that  work  as  my  own 
contribution.  But  in  this  special  preliminary 
report  the  reading  matter  in  the  two  paragraphs 
at  the  bottom  of  page  v  and  top  of  page  vi,  are  not 
only  my  own,  but  are  the  result  of  prolonged  re- 
search. Especially  should  I  claim  credit  for  the 
estimate  of  the  250,000  immigrants  arriving  in  the 
country  prior  to  the  year  1820.  I  consulted  many 
early  authorities  on  the  subject  and  arrived  at  that 
figure  after  weeks  of  investigation.  The  estimate 
has  never  been  questioned  and  has  been  quoted 
many  times.  It  was  attributed  to  various  authors, 
and  especially  to  Dr.  Seybert,  who  was  one  of  the 
authorities  consulted  by  me,  but  his  estimates 
covered  only  a  part  of  the  period.  In  1880,  when 
General  Francis  A.  Walker  was  Superintendent  of 

175 


176  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

Census,  he  so  attributed  it  in  one  of  the  bulletins 
that  he  issued.  On  Nov.  9,  1880,  I  wrote  him  a 
letter  stating  the  facts,  and  received  from  him  the 
following  courteous  reply : 

I? — °37l  DEPARTMENT  OF  THE  INTERIOR, 

Tenth  Census  CENSUS  OFFICE, 

of  the 
United  States. 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C., — November  17  1880. 
To  LESTER  F.  WARD,  Esq. 
1464  R.  I.  ave.  N.  W. 
WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 

DEAR  MR.  WARD: 

I  am  much  obliged  to  you  for  your  note  of  the  Qth  inst. 
relative  to  my  slip  in  attributing  to  Dr.  Seybert  the  estimate 
of  immigration  between  1790  and  1820,  which  was  in  fact 
prepared  by  yourself.  In  making  this  estimate  in  my  report 
on  South  Carolina  I  followed  a  previous  paper  by  myself, 
on  the  growth  of  population  between  1776  and  1876.  How 
I  then  came  to  make  the  mistake  is  beyond  my  comprehen- 
sion. 

Thanking  you  for  calling  my  attention  to  the  matter,  I 
remain 

Very  truly  yours, 

F.  A.  WALKER, 

Supt.  of  Census. 

In  view  of  the  great  interest  that  the  whole 
subject  of  immigration  and  emigration  has  latterly 
assumed  I  think  I  ought  to  say  something  about 
my  part  in  it,  and  this  is  the  only  place  where 
such  a  statement  is  appropriate  to  the  present 
work.  It  will  also  possess  a  certain  biographical 
interest. 


IMMIGRATION  STATISTICS  177 

After  receiving  my  discharge  from  the  army 
on  Nov.  1 8,  1864,  on  account  of  gunshot  wounds 
received  at  the  battle  of  Chancellorsville  on  May 
3,  1863,  and  from  which  I  had  not  yet  recovered,  I 
applied  for  a  clerkship  under  the  Government, 
but  I  did  not  receive  it  until  May  8,  1865.  I  was 
then  appointed  to  a  temporary  position  in  the 
Third  Auditor's  Office  of  the  Treasury  Department, 
where  the  Quartermasters'  accounts  were  settled, 
and  as  I  had  shown  that  I  understood  book-keeping, 
I  was  assigned  to  the  money  Division.  My 
appointment  was  made  permanent  on  July  26th, 
and  I  was  given  some  of  the  most  extensive  and 
difficult  accounts.  The  Bureau  of  Statistics  was 
established  early  in  1867,  and  I  applied  to  be  trans- 
ferred to  that,  hoping  that  the  work  would  be  more 
varied  and  interesting.  Mr.  Alexander  Delmar 
was  its  first  Director,  and  I  was  ordered  to  report  to 
him.  The  Bureau  was  under  a  Commission,  of 
which  David  A.  Wells,  the  political  economist, 
was  the  head,  but  he  was  a  strong  free  trader,  and 
Congress  was  still  more  strongly  protectionist. 
It  was  not  long  therefore  before  the  Commission 
was  abolished,  but  the  Bureau  was  retained.  Mr. 
Delmar  had  to  go  and  Gen.  Francis  A.  Walker 
succeeded  him.  He  did  not  remain  long,  however, 
as  he  was  made  Superintendent  of  Census.  A  man 
named  Edward  Young  became  chief  of  the  Bureau. 
Much  later  Mr.  Joseph  Nimmo  was  appointed  to 
that  office.  I  served  under  all  these  heads. 

I  commenced  work  in  the  Bureau  on  Jan.  2 
1867.  Mr.  Delmar  gave  me  to  understand  that  I 


178  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

should  have  some  kind  of  work  suited  to  my 
abilities,  but  the  great  bulk  of  the  work  was  the 
compilation  of  the  statistics  of  imports,  exports, 
and  navigation,  that  had  previously  been  done  in 
the  Registration  Division,  and  I  was  long  compelled 
to  do  that  kind  of  routine  work.  But  on  July 
31,  Mr.  Delmar  asked  me  to  compile  the  statistics 
of  immigration,  which  had  never  been  published 
in  any  form  accessible  to  the  public.  There  was  a 
law  dating  back  to  1820  requiring  returns  to  be 
rendered,  and  this  had  been  done  in  a  very  imper- 
fect way,  and  reports  of  it  published  by  the  State 
Department.  Now  the  customs  officers  were 
instructed  to  send  their  reports  to  the  Bureau  of 
Statistics.  Some  of  the  latest  of  these  were  put 
into  my  hands  and  I  prepared  them  for  publication. 
The  first  year  for  which  I  prepared  such  a  report 
was  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1867.  The 
returns  were  very  crude  and  defective,  and  I  had 
to  write  letters  to  customs  officers  all  round  the 
board,  and  even  to  steamship  lines.  But  the  work 
was  begun  then  and  I  carried  it  forward  as  long  as 
I  remained  in  the  Bureau,  constantly  improving 
and  perfecting  it,  and  introducing  new  features. 
The  annual  reports  of  the  Bureau  show  how  this 
was  done. 

But  nothing  was  known  of  the  statistics  of 
immigration  earlier  than  that  date.  There  were 
some  estimates  made  by  prominent  statisticians, 
and  that  was  all.  And  yet  every  year  reports  had 
been  sent,  as  above  stated,  to  the  Department  of 
State,  which  was  required  by  the  law  to  publish 


IMMIGRATION  STATISTICS  179 

them,  and  it  had  done  so.  But  the  existence  of 
these  reports  was  scarcely  known.  They  were 
buried  away  among  the  other  documents  of  that 
department  and  wholly  lost  from  view.  Mr. 
Delmar  learned  of  their  existence,  and  brought  me 
a  few  of  them  on  Dec.  6,  and  I  compiled  a  state- 
ment for  the  year  1860.  There  was  no  method 
in  these  reports,  the  figures  being  printed  under  the 
heads  specified  in  the  act  with  no  attempt  to  tabu- 
late them.  Nothing  whatever  could  be  made  of 
the  reports  as  published.  They  must  be  worked 
into  intelligible  form  before  any  use  could  be 
made  of  them.  I  think  I  gave  Mr.  Delmar  the 
first  intimation  of  the  existence  of  these  reports, 
for  I  find  that  I  went  to  the  State  Department 
on  Aug.  14,  and  again  on  Dec.  4,  in  search  of  them. 
It  was  probably  at  the  last  named  date  that  I 
brought  him  some  of  them  which  the  Department 
allowed  me  to  take  away.  He  must  have  then 
gone  there  and  arranged  to  have  them  all  sent 
to  the  Bureau  of  Statistics.  The  record  is  very 
defective  on  these  points.  They  seem  to  have  all 
come  over  on  Dec.  1 1 ,  and  were  on  that  day  put 
into  my  hands  for  compilation. 

As  I  had  to  prepare  tables  of  immigration  quar- 
terly for  publication,  and  drum  up  the  customs 
officers,  I  did  not  have  much  time  for  this  back 
work.  I  got  up  fine  record  entry  books  in  which 
the  returns  were  registered,  which  showed  every 
minute  detail  that  could  be  obtained,  and  these 
books  were  regularly  kept  as  long  as  I  remained  in 
the  Bureau.  They  would  get  full  and  have  to  be 


i8o  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

renewed  from  time  to  time  the  same  as  all  other 
records,  but  this  was  always  done,  and  they  consti- 
tute, if  they  are  preserved,  a  permanent  record 
of  these  operations.  The  quarterly  and  annual 
reports  were  extracted  from  these  books. 

By  the  end  of  1868,  working  at  odd  spells,  I 
had  gotten  the  State  Department  reports  into 
such  form  that  conclusions  could  be  drawn  from 
them  as  to  the  number  of  immigrants  reported  to 
have  reached  our  shores  since  the  passage  of  the 
law  requiring  returns  to  be  rendered,  that  is,  from 
the  year  1820.  The  important  fact  was  of  course 
the  nationality,  but  careful  attention  was  also 
paid  to  their  occupations.  Age  and  sex  were  also 
distinguished,  and  it  was  possible  to  show  at  what 
ports  they  arrived.  But  I  desired  to  determine 
approximately  the  number  who  had  arrived  prior 
to  1820.  For  this  there  were  no  statistics,  and  all 
I  could  do  was  to  hunt  up  the  various  estimates 
that  different  statisticians  had  made  for  particular 
periods.  I  visited  all  the  libraries  and  searched 
out  these  documents.  Dr.  Seybert  was  one  of 
the  principal  authorities  consulted,  but  his  esti- 
mates did  not  cover  the  entire  period,  and  there 
were  none  that  did  so.  After  bringing  everything 
of  the  kind  together,  I  was  still  obliged  to  make  my 
own  estimate  for  a  considerable  part  of  the  time, 
and  what  I  then  knew  of  the  later  years  enabled  me 
to  correct  the  estimates  for  the  earlier  ones.  I 
remember  what  a  mass  of  data  I  accumulated, 
and  how  I  proceeded  to  analyse  and  average 
it  in  order  to  arrive  at  a  final  estimate  that 


IMMIGRATION  STATISTICS  181 

satisfied  me.     That  estimate,  as  above  stated,  was 
250,000. 

On  April  i,  1869,  while  Gen.  Walker  was  in 
charge  of  the  Bureau,  I  had  a  long  talk  with  him, 
and  told  him  all  about  the  work.  He  manifested 
great  interest,  and  encouraged  me  to  go  on.  On 
May  8  I  finished  the  compilation  of  the  State 
Department  reports  and  was  ready  to  commence 
compiling  the  tables.  On  June  16  I  record  in 
my  diary  that  "I  am  getting  up  a  table  of  immi- 
grants from  the  earliest  period  of  the  government. " 
How  long  I  was  about  this  I  have  no  means  of 
determining,  but  the  tables  were  probably  all 
completed  during  the  year  1870.  After  Mr. 
Young  had  been  in  charge  some  time  he  proposed 
to  publish  a  special  report  on  immigration,  and 
though  chiefly  interested  in  showing  the  advantages 
of  this  country  to  immigrants,  he  wished  to  intro- 
duce some  general  statistics,  and  asked  me  what 
could  be  furnished.  I  showed  him  what  I  had, 
and  he  concluded  to  begin  his  report  with  my  tables. 
On  Feb.  10,  1871,  he  asked  me  to  write  out 
the  results  of  my  investigations,  and  I  proceeded 
to  do  so,  finishing  it  and  sending  it  to  him  on  the 
1 3th.  He  embodied  it  in  his  report  practically  in 
my  words.  Copies  of  the  report  were  received  at 
the  Bureau  on  June  5th.  It  was  reprinted  a  year 
later  and  the  date  on  the  title-page  changed.  I 
have  only  a  copy  of  this  second  impression,  but 
nothing  was  ever  changed  in  the  portions  contrib- 
uted by  me.  I  introduce  here  my  discussion  of 
the  statistics  and  the  tables  i  to  10.  I  draw  special 


1 82  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

attention  to  tables  6,  7,  8,  and  10,  in  which  I  gave 
the  outward  movement  and  deducted  it  from  the 
total  arrivals.  In  this  I  was  able  to  go  back  to 
1 86 1.  This  outward  movement  has  recently 
assumed  a  special  prominence  along  the  Canadian 
border  in  the  West,  but  at  the  time  I  collected 
the  statistics  its  extent  could  not  be  determined. 

These  tables  undoubtedly  embody  the  most 
important  information  on  the  subject  of  immigra- 
tion and  the  movement  of  population  that  had  ever 
been  published  in  this  country.  They  are  being 
constantly  used  as  the  basis  of  all  discussions  of 
the  subject  in  and  out  of  Congress.  They  are 
usually  credited  to  the  Bureau  of  Statistics  simply, 
but  sometimes  to  Dr.  Edward  Young,  who  really 
had  nothing  to  do  with  them.  My  name  of  course 
does  not  appear  in  the  report,  and  yet  I  am  as 
much  their  author  as  I  am  of  any  of  my  books  or 
articles.  The  economists  who  so  frequently  quote 
them  little  imagine  to  whom  they  are  indebted 
for  the  privilege  of  doing  so. 

A  number  of  errors  occur  in  these  tables,  which 
have  probably  been  corrected  in  later  reports.  No 
attempt  is  here  made  to  do  so. 


SPECIAL    REPORT 


ON 


IMMIGRATION 


BY 
EDWARD  YOUNG,  Pn.D 

CHIEF  OF  THE  BUREAU  OF  STATISTICS 


[STATISTICS  COMPILED  AND  ESTIMATES  MADE 

BY 


LESTER  F.  WARD] 


WASHINGTON : 

GOVERNMENT  PRINTING  OFFICE 
1871 


REPORT  ON  IMMIGRATION 

BUREAU  OF  STATISTICS,  TREASURY  DEPARTMENT 
Washington,  March  7, 1871. 

PRIOR  to  the  year  1820  no  official  records  were  kept  of 
the  influx  of  foreign  population  to  this  country.  The 
population  of  the  Colonies  at  the  commencement 
of  the  Revolutionary  War  has  generally  been  estimated  at 
3,000,000,  and  it  is  probable  that  as  many  as  one-third  of 
these  were  born  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic,  while  the 
parents  of  a  large  portion  of  the  remainder  were  among  the 
early  immigrants.  During  the  war  the  influx  was  in  great 
part  suspended,  but  at  its  termination  the  tide  of  immigra- 
tion resumed  its  flow  with  increased  activity.  The  number 
of  alien  passengers  who  arrived  between  the  years  1790  and 
1820  has  been  estimated  by  statisticians  at  225,000,  to 
which  may  be  added  25,000  arriving  between  the  years 
1776  and  1790,  making  an  aggregate  of  250,000  immigrants 
who  had  transferred  their  allegiance  to  the  United  States 
before  the  enactment  of  the  passenger  act  of  March  2,  1819. 
Since  that  period  the  stream  of  immigration,  measured  with 
approximate  accuracy,  has  been  steadily  flowing  toward 
this  country.  Its  increase — from  1820,  when  8,385  alien 
passengers  landed  on  our  shores,  of  which  6,024 
were  from  the  British  [  Isles,  until  1854,  when  it 
reached  the  maximum  of  427,833 — though  irregular,  was 
on  the  whole  rapid.  Immediately  previous  to  and  during 
the  late  war  the  decline  was  marked,  descending  to  123,126 
in  1858,  and  121,282  in  1859,  and  to  less  than  92,000  in  the 


186  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

years  1861  and  1862.  After  the  termination  of  the  war, 
however,  immigration  resumed  its  former  magnitude,  reach- 
ing from  249,061  in  1865  to  395,922  in  1869.  In  the  year 
1870,  just  closed,  the  arrivals  during  the  last  two  quarters 
of  the  year  have  been  diminished  by  the  war  in  Europe, 
the  whole  immigration  being  but  378,796.  To  this  should 
be  added  about  10,000,  the  estimated  number  who  came 
across  the  Canadian  frontier,  either  directly  from  the  British 
provinces,  or  through  them  from  Europe. 

During  the  entire  period  from  1820  to  1870,  the  increase 
of  each  year  over  the  one  immediately  preceding,  if  uniform, 
would  average  about  13  per  cent.  The  aggregate  number  of 
immigrants  who  arrived  between  October  i,  1819,  and  De- 
cember 31,  1870,  is  7,553,865;  and  if  the  250,000  estimated 
as  arriving  previous  to  the  first-named  date  be  included, 
the  total  number  of  aliens  who  have  been  permanently 
added  to  our  population  by  direct  immigration  since  the 
formation  of  the  Government  will  reach  7,803,865. 


No.  I. — A  statement,  by  countries,  of  the  number  of  alien  passengers  arrived 
Page  XI.         in  the  United  States  from  foreign  countries,  from  the  commencement  of  the 
Government  to  December  31,  1870.     [The  dates  are  inclusive.] 


Countries. 
England  

?riorto 
1820. 

1820  to 
1830. 

1831  to 
1840. 

184110 
1850. 

1851  to 
i860. 

1861  to 
1870. 

Aggre- 
gate. 

15.837 
57.278 
3,180 
170 
5,362 

7,6n 
198,233 
2,667 
185 
74,495 

32.092 
733.434 
3.712 
1,261 
277.264 

247,125 
936,665 
38,331 
6,319 
109,653 

213.527 
774.883 
36.733 
4.500 
77,333 

516,192 
2,700,493 
84,623 
12,435 
544.107 

Ireland*  

Scotland  

Wales  

Great  Britain,  not  specified  

Total  from  British  Isles.  .  .  . 

81,827 

7.583 
146 

283,191 

148,204 
4.250 

1,047,763 

422.477 
12,149 

1,338,093 

907,780 
43.887 

1,106,976 

781,456 
40,551 
9.398 
117,799 
17,885 
9,539 
37.749 
23.839 
7,416 
6,966 
2,081 
12,706 
73 
"5 
8 
82 
2,671 
2,3/9 
488 
137 
68,059 
359 
81 
34 
4 
7 

864 
31 
II 
5 
.     r9i 
167.349 
3.386 
96 
55 
47 
41 
30 
54 

10 
3 
10 

I 
1,192 
4.240 
IOO 

98 

57 
5.205 
138 
76 
31 
<5 

3,857,850 

2,267,500 
100,983 
9,398 
153.928 
23.425 
31,118 
245,812 
61,572 
17.278 
23.214 
4.695 
23.998 
2,103 
675 
127 
198 
4.045 
4.038 
488 
307 
109,502 
259 
208 

34 
4 
H 

27 

88 
64 
30 

5 

470 
284,491 
20,152 
1,064 
55 
47 
41 
30 
54 
to 
3 
IO 

I 
7.393 
4,240 
IOO 
98 
57 
45.692 
247 
155 
IOO 

19 

7 

6,885 
63 
73 

323 

33 

290 
4 
II 
488,643 

12 
II 

Germany  

Austria  

Sweden  and  Norway  

94 
189 
1,127 
8,868 
3.257 
28 
2,616 
1  80 
389 
32 
17 
I 
20 
89 
21 

1,201 
1,063 
1,412 

45.575 
4,821 

22 
2,125 
829 
2,211 
7 
35 
35 
49 
277 
369 

13.903 
539 
8,251 
77,262 
4.644 
5.074 
2,209 
550 
I.S90 
20  1 
79 
78 
16 
551 
105 

20,931 
3.749 
10,789 
76,358 
25,011 
4.738 
9,298 
I.OSS 

7,012 

1,790 
429 
5 
31 
457 
1.164 

Holland  

Switzerland  

Spain       

Italy     

Sicily  

Malta  

Greece  

Poland      

Turkey     

31 
3 

7 
8 

59 
35 

83 
4L397 

China  

9 

39 

36 

43 

Arabia  

Syria        

7 
4 

3 

2 
I 

I 

IS 

Cape  of  Good  Hope  

8 

4 

5 

19 
5 

Ecrvnt 

10 
2,486 
4,818 
107 

36 
13,624 
6,599 
44 

47 
4L723 
3.271 
368 

186 
59,309 
3.078 
449 

British  America  

Peru  

Chili        

Brazil  

542 

856 

3.579 

1,724 

Cuba                

Hayti           

3.998 
2 

12,301 

13.528 

10,660 
104 
44 

I 

79 

6 

28 

East  India  Islands  

\ 

I 

Islands  of  the  Pacific,  not  specified 

3,643 
03 
43 
9 
16 
4 
4 

X 

S7,26o 
3 

13 

29 

327 

2,873 

4 
70 

15 
53 
i 
6 

3 

3 
3 

I 

189 
13 

St  Helena     

271 

10 

25.9" 

250,000 

32,894 

2 

4 

69,801 
t 

4 

53.777 
j 

250,000 

151.824 

599.125 

I.7I3.2SI 

2.598,214 

2,491,451 

7,803,865 

*  The  natives  of  Ireland  are  partly  estimated  on  the  basis  of  data  obtained  by  the  commissioners  of 
emigration  of  New  York,  who  have  made  careful  inquiries  on  this  subject.  The  total  from  the  Brit- 
ish Isles,  given  above,  is  from  official  returns  to  the  Bureau  of  Statistics. 

I87 


D.rroc  VTT  VTTT  No.  2.  —  Statement  of  the  Nationalities  of  the  Alien  Passengers  arrived  in  the  United  States  dicing  the  fifty-one  years  ended 
**•  December  31,  1870. 

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ritish  Isles  is  correct  ;  but  the  number  from  Ireland  is  partly  estimated  on  the  basis  of  data  obtained  by  the  New  York  commissioners  ol 
3  diligent  inquiries  on  this  subject, 
migration,  about  one  and  two-thirds  per  cent,  of  the  total  aliens  should  be  deducted  for  aliens  not  intending  to  remain  in  the  United  States 
age  to  the  United  States  are  also  unavoidably  included  in  these  figures,  previous  to  the  year  1867;  which  accounts  for  the  discrepancid 
ose  in  statement  No.  8. 

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*  Calendar  years. 
t  The  total  from  the  B 
emigration,  who  have  mad 
t  To  obtain  the  net  in: 
Those  who  died  on  the  vo> 
between  these  totals  and  th 

195 


No.  3 . — A  Statement,  in  detail,  of  the  Nationalities  of  Immigrants  arrived  in 

Page  XX.         the  United  States  during  the  fiscal  year  ended  June  30, 1870;  also  (without 

distinguishing  sex  or  age)  for  the  calendar  year  ended  December  31, 1870. 


Countries. 

For  year  ended  June  30,  1870. 

|i« 

*Q? 

•8.8  d 
!«§« 

pE|  9  O  M 

Males. 

Females. 

Total. 

38,106 
47,391 
7,605 
574 
1,107 

22,851 
32,945 
4,916 
437 
4,741 

60,957 
80,336 
12,521 

I.OII 

5.848 

59.488 

75.544 
11,820 
672 
3.56s 

Ireland*  

Scotland  

Wales  

Total  British  Isles  

94,783 

70,688 
2,340 
8,306 
8,003 
2,519 
663 
718 

2,002 
2,691 
487 

175 
2,132 
20 
6 
550 
140 
i 

2 
14,624 
46 
19 

I 

IS 
II 
21,647 

731 
157 

12 

176 

358 

31 
I 

I 
6 
13 

2 
36 

848 

I 
I 

9 
5 
3 
3U 
275 

2 

3 
14 
9 
3 

12 

65,890 

47,537 
2,084 
5,137 
5.213 
1,564 
403 
284 
1.073 
1,316 
176 
80 
759 

2 

160,673 

118,225 
4.424 
13.443 
13,216 
4.083 
i,  066 
1,002 
3,075 
4,007 
663 
255 
2,891 

22 

6 

907 
223 
i 

2 
15,740 
48 

24 
I 
20 
II 
37,908 
1,746 
458 

IS 
284 
463 

33 

I 
I 
10 

13 

2 
42 

1,233 

2 

I 

9 
8 
8 
418 
442 
5 
3 
28 

12 

8 

22 

151,089 

91,779 
5,283 
12,009 
12,356 
3,041 
970 
1,039 
2,474 
3.586 
Sii 
291 
2,940 
IS 

13 
766 
424 
I 
3 
11,943 
74 

32 

9 

12 
12 

51.278 
1,678 
255 
9 

120 
461 
25 

8 
9 

12 

14 

4 
37 
642 
18 
16 
IS 

Germany  

Sweden  

Holland  

Belgium  

Switzerland  

France  

Portugal  

Italy  

Greece  

Turkey  

357 
83 

Poland  

Hungary.  .  . 

China  

1,116 

2 

5 

Taoan.  .  . 

India  

Asia,  not  specified  

South  Africa  

5 

Africa,  not  specified  

Dominion  of  Canada  

16,261 
1,015 
301 
3 
108 
105 

2 

Prince  Edward  Island  

Newfoundland  

British  Columbia  

British  North  American  Provinces,  not  specified  

Mexico  

Central  America  

Guiana  

4 

Chili  

South  America,  not  specified        

6 

385 
i 

Cuba  

Hayti  

Jamaica  

Barbadoes  

3 

5 
104 
167 
3 

New  Providence  

West  Indies,  not  specified  

418 
560 
7 
5 
9 
I 
II 
22,512 

Azore  Islands  

.St.  Helena  

Bermudas  

14 
3 
5 

10 

East  India  Islands  

New  Zealand  

Total  alien  passengers  

235,612 

I5I.59I 

387.203 

378,796 
22,493 

Deduct  No.  not  intending  to  remain  in  United  States. 

Total  immigrants  

356,303 

*  Total  from  the  British  Isles  is  correct.     The  natives  of  Ireland  are  estimated  from  data  obtained 
alter  diligent  inquiry  by  the  New  York  commissioners  of  emigration. 

196  i 


IMMIGRATION  STATISTICS 


197 


p 


No.  4,  —  Statement  showing  the  numbers  and  nativities  of  alien  immigrants  who 
arrived  at  the  port  of  New  York  during  the  ten  years  ended  December  3  1  ,  1  870. 


[From  the  report  of  the  New  York  Commissioners  of  Emigration.1] 


Nationality. 

1861. 

1862. 

1863. 

1864. 

1865. 

1866. 

1867. 

1868. 

1869. 

1870. 

25,784 
27,139 
5,632 
659 
i,  200 
L398 
331 
697 
93 
382 
750 
165 
190 

is 

£ 

88 

14 
II 
36 
19 
45 
I 
IO 
2 
I 

5 

32,217 
27,740 
7,975 
692 
1,187 
1.254 
456 
1,062 
22 
663 
487 
195 
124 
156 
1,689 
50 
39 
92 
13 
67 
46 
33 
13 
9 
15 
i 
6 
3 

91.157 
3S.O02 
18,757 
1,937 
1,303 
1,194 
407 
1,143 
238 
1,370 
444 
456 
202 
256 
1,580 
137 

89,399 
57,446 
23,710 
1,126 
1,804 
1,652 
615 
659 
88 
1,516 
475 
1  86 
196 
236 
565 
198 

70,462 
83,451 
27,286 
3,962 
2,059 
2.513 
729 
505 
158 
2.337 
591 
97 
224 
283 
727 
423 

68,047 
106,716 
36,186 
4,979 
3,246 
3,68s 
1,506 
540 
583 
3,907 
918 
157 
315 
246 
1,526 
231 

65,134 
II7.59I 
33.712 
6,315 
3,204 
3,985 
2,156 
142 
209 
4.843 
1,032 
1,623 
203 
214 
1,372 
268 

47,571 
101,989 
29,695 
7,390 
2,811 
3,302 
1,265 
699 
1,  008 
14,529 
993 
149 
2IO 

171 

1,087 

268 

I 
134 
13 

52 

145 

33 

34 
3 
49 
2 
IO 
22 
IO 
3 
26 
21 

66,204 
99,605 
41,090 
10,643 

2,795 
2,999 
1,247 
I,  in 
3,465 
23.453 
1,548 
146 

210 
378 
2,6OO 
598 

64,168 
72,368 
38,340 

10,731 
2,210 
537 
525 
545 
2,678 
11.549 
2,081 
83 
156 
140 
2,441 
S77 

England  

Scotland    

France  

Holland  

Wales  

Sweden  

Italy  

Belgium  

West  Indies   

Denmark  

Poland  

South  America  

60 
3 

77 
47 
17 
38 

i 
5 
3 

2 

2 

6 

124 
34 
40 
37 
35 

92 

3 

41 

i 

13 
5 

109 
42 
77 
93 
43 
70 
3 
36 
7 
5 
5 
37 
11 

155 
96 
40 
K54 
28 
56 
I 
26 
IS 
S 
8 
IS 

12 

97 
79 

22 

185 
42 
28 

IO2 
60 
119 
376 

27 
90 

34 

5 

23 

433 
34 
37 

Novia  Scotia  

Sicily   

17 
1 

6 

2 

87 
44 

7 

IS 

25 

7 
5 
17 
4 

12 
3» 

2O 
13 
14 
I 
II 
I 
9 
24 

Greece  

Turkey  

Central  America  .  . 

7 

Annual  total  .... 

65,539 

76,306 

156,844 

182,296 

196,352 

233,418 

242,731 

213,686 

258,989 

211,190 

Page  XXII. 


No.  5. — A  Statement,  in  detail,  of  the  Occupations  of  Immigrants  arrived  in 
the  United  States  during  the  fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1870. 


Occupations. 

Males. 

Females. 

Total. 

Occupations. 

Males. 

Females. 

Total. 

PROFESSIONAL  CALL- 

Milliners   

17 

INGS. 

Actors  

4 

4 

Miners  
Molders  

4.763 

2 

4,763 

Chemists  

41 

43 

ip 

Clergymen  

285 

285 

Painters  

753 

753 

Dentists  

3 

3 

Pilot  

I 

Engineers  

551 

SSI 

Plumbers  

7 

7 

Farriers  

7 

7 

Potters  

8 

8 

Lawyers  

77 

77 

180 

Musicians  

282 

7 

289 

Puddlers  

2 

Naturalists  

3 

3 

•I 

232 

232 

Saddlers  .    . 

167 

167 

Priests  

10 

10 

12 

Reporters  

2 

2 

I 

Surgeon  

I 

I 

"!O? 

Surveyor  

I 

I 

o 

Teachers  

222 

271 

493 

i 

Professions  not  stated 

131 

131 

1,557 

1,557 

Soapmakers  

2 

2 

Tntal 

Spinners  

Stonecutters  

7 

122 

3 

IO 
122 

Tailors  

1,  66O 

43 

1,703 

Telegraph  operator  .  . 

I 

I 

Tinners  

26 

26 

ARTISTS. 

8 

g 

Weavers  

1,178 

1,178 

Carver  

I 

I 

Wheelwrights  
Wool  sorter  

29 
I 

29 
I 

Image-maker  

I 

I 

Mechanics  not  stated 

8,061 

8,061 

Lithographer  ....... 
Photographers  

I 
3 

I 
3 

Total  

31,372 

592 

31,964 

Artists  not  stated.  .  .  . 

170 

20 

190 

Total  

I  So 

20 

200 

MISCELLANEOUS  OC- 
CUPATIONS. 

37 

37 

SKILLED  WORKMEN. 

Brokers  , 

2 

2 

I 

I 

Bakers  

Clerks 

1,611 

1,611 

Barbers  

21 

21 

4 

4 

Blacksmiths  

2.378 

2  378 

A. 

Block-makers  

66 

7 

73 

Boiler-makers  

3 

3 

51 

51 

Bookbinders  

i 

10 

3 

3 

35,550 

1  06 

35  656 

Brewers  

362 

362 

22 

22 

Brick-makers  

331 

331 

45 

6 

Cabinet-makers  

6 

6 

2 

2 

Carpenters  

25 

35 

Caulkers  

6 

6 

I 

I 

Chandler  

i 

4 

Cigar-makers  

227 

i 

228 

21 

2 

23 

Confectioners  

6 

6 

84,220 

357 

84,577 

Coopers  

IOI 

7 

7 

6 

6 

Cutlers  

5 

5 

49 

49 

Distillers  

2 

7,056 

17 

7,073 

Divers  

2 

2 

36 

36 

Dressmakers  

21 

6 

6 

Officers 

16 

16 

File-makers  

2 

2 

23 

23 

Fuller  

I 

I 

I 

Peddlers 

6 

6 

Gilders  

3 

3 

39 

10 

49 

Glaziers  

2 

I 

I 

1,420 

1,420 

Hatters  

58 

58 

5,1  15 

9,146 

14,261 

Hoe-maker  

I 

23 

23 

Instrument-maker.  .  . 

I 

I 

Soldiers  

117 

117 

Iron-  workers  

3 

3 

i 

I 

Jewelers  

409 

Students  

188 

188 

6 

6 

Travelers  

15 

15 

Millers  

258 

258 

Total  

136,058 

9,724 

145,782 

198 


Page  XXin. 


No.  5. — Statement  of  the  Occupation  of  Immigrants  arrived  in  United 
States,  &c. — Continued. 

RECAPITULATION. 


Occupations. 

Males. 

Females. 

Total. 

Professional  callings  

1,854 

278 

Artists  ....                   

180 

Skilled  workmen  

31,372 

592 

Miscellaneous  occupations  

136,058 

Without  occupation  .        

3,806 

Occupation  not  stated  

62,342 

128,254 

Aggregate  

235,612 

151,591 

387    203 

No.  6. — A  Comparative  Statement  of  Immigration  and  Emigration  for  the  four  and  a  half 
years  from  July  i,  1866,  to  December  31,  1870,  inclusive. 


Period. 

Total  number  of 
passengers  arrived 
in  the  United 
States. 

<M     t     U 

°%-s  . 

o  01  a  8 

!MI 

C  (0-0  "£ 
to  cj  ** 

*c5  j  *••  '? 

S  «J  n)S 

o  aBP 

H 

Excess  of  arrivals 
over  departures, 
or  total  increase 
of  population  by 
immigration. 

Passengers  not  Im- 
migrants. 

Net  immigration. 

Net  emigration. 

July  i  to  December  31,  1866  

174,068 

34,153 

139,915 

25,353 

168,094 

34,546 

133,548 

17,842 

150,252 

342,162 

68,699 

273,463 

43,195 

298  967 

July  i  to  December  31,  1867.  ..        

171,533 

33,318 

138,215 

28,184 

Calendar  year  1867  .'  

339,627 

67,864 

271,763 

46,026 

156,615 

34,017 

122,598 

17,775 

138  840 

Fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1  868  

328,148 

67,335 

260,813 

45.959 

282,189 

July  i  to  December  31,  1868  

169,617 

39,521 

130,096 

19,312 

Calendar  year  1868  

326,232 

73.538 

252,694 

37,o87 

289,145 

220,274 

34,341 

185,933 

17,811 

389,891 

73,862 

316,029 

37,123 

352  768 

July  i  to  December  31,  1869  

208,929 

43,608 

165,321 

26,105 

182,824 

429,203 

77,949 

351,254 

43,916 

385  287 

January  i  to  June  30,  1870  

227,856 

38,278 

189.578 

23,477 

204,379 

Fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1870  
July  i  to  December  31,  1870  

436,785 
192,142 

81,886 
*5o,ooo 

354.899 
142,142 

49,582 
40,218 

387.203 

32,304 

Calendar  year  1870  

419,998 

88,278 

331,720 

63,695 

356,303 

24.583 

Total  for  4}^  years  

1,689,128 

341,782 

1.347.346 

216,077 

1,473,051 

125  705 

'Estimated. 

No.  7. — A  Comparative  Statement  of  Immigration  for  the  ten  fiscal  years  from  July  I, 

1860,   to  June  30,    1870. 


Years  ended  — 

Total  number  of  pas- 
sengers arrived  in  the 
United  States. 

Passengers  not  immigrants. 

Net  Immigration. 

Total>liens. 

Citizens  of  United 
States. 

«£! 

•*•*  "3 

%s£ 
§*a. 
Issl 

£  c  3  * 
SSEw 
£ 

Total. 

166,216 
92,375 
155.627 
220,251 
212,972 
373,229 
342,162 
328,148 
389,891 
436,785 

23,551 
20,314 
22,811 
26,142 
31,609 
40,731 
39,ii8 
40,060 
26,817 
33,86s 

2,137 
2,612 
2,756 

355 
696 
1.794 
4.077 
5,899 
10,306 
15.717 

25,688 
22,926 
25,567 
26,497 
32,305 
42,525 
43.195 
45.959 
37,123 
49.582 

140,528 
69,449 
130,060 
193.754 
180,667 
330,704 
298,967 
282,189 
352,768 
387,203 

142,665 
72,061 
132,816 
194,109 
181,363 
332,498 
303.044 
288,088 
363,074 
402,920 

une  30,  1862  

June  30,  1863  

June  30,  1864  

une  30,  1  865  

une  30,  1866  

une  30,  1867  

une  30,  1868  

une  30,  1869  

une  30,  1870  

f  otal  

2,717.656 

305,018 

46.349 

351,367 

2,366,289 

2,412,638 

199 


Page  XXIV. 


No.  8. — A  Comparative  Statement  of  Immigration  for  the  ten  calendar  years 
from  1 86 1  to  1870,  inclusive. 


s| 

o. 

Passengers  not  immigrants. 

.s 

13 

B  i"0 

. 

a 

Years  ended  — 

fe.>  3 

a 

5s 

isl 

_0 

1 

23 

Total. 

V 

cw 

£'"  C  * 

8 

•3 

IS  '3 

I 

'S  g'3_3 

.9 

V 

3 

H"" 

0 

£ 

* 

H 

December  31,  1861  

112,605 

20,782 

2,103 

22,885 

89,720 

91  823 

December  31,1  862  

114,301 

22,476 

2,820 

25,296 

89,005 

91,825 

December  31,1863  

199,744 

23,529 

1,692 

25,221 

174,523 

176,215 

December  31,  1864  

221,531 

28,119 

221 

28,340 

193,191 

193,412 

December  31,1  865  

287,390 

38,338 

658 

38,996 

248,394 

249,052 

December  31,1  866  

359,940 

3,651 

45,100 

314,840 

318  491 

December  31,  1867  

339,627 

41,269 

4,757 

46,026 

293,601 

298,358 

December  31,  1868  

326,232 

29,017 

8,070 

37,087 

289,145 

297,2  15 

December  31,1  869  

429,203 

33,281 

10,635 

43,916 

385,287 

395,922 

December  31,  1870  

419,998 

41,202 

22,493 

63,695 

356,303 

378,796 

Total   

2,810,571 

319,462 

57.100 

376,562 

2.434.009 

2,491,109 

No.  9. — A  Statement,  by  Occupations,  of  the  number  of  Passengers  arrived  in  the  United 
States  for  the  fifty-one  years  ended  December  31,1 870.     [The  dates  are  inclusive.] 


Occupations. 

Prior  to 
1820. 

1820  to 
1830. 

1831  to 
1840. 

1841  to 
1850. 

1851  to 
1860. 

1861  to 
1870. 

Aggreg'e. 

Laborers  

10,280 
15,005 
6,805 
19,434 
1.327 
341 
4.995 
882 
2,937 
805 

413 
415 
583 
139 
329 
983 
1,109 
175 
244 
793 
226 
275 
199 
232 
179 
140 
183 
137 
5.466 

101,442 

53,l69 
88,240 
56,582 
41,881 
2.571 
368 
8,004 
1,143 
6,600 
1.959 

1,672 
932 
569 
513 
432 
2,252 
1,966 
107 
461 
1,435 
311 
267 
189 
369 
472 
165 
87 
114 
4.004 

363.252 

281,220 
256,880 
164,411 
46,388 
24.538 
1,735 
6,398 
1,065 
1.303 
2,116 

2,096 
1.559 
28 
1,223 
76 
65 
63 
1.833 
831 
24 
654 
832 
33 
8 

'4 
236 

233 
I 
2,892 

9694H 

527.639 
404,712 
179.726 
124,149 
21,058 
37,523 
10,087 
792 
717 
2,229 

1,065 
1.420 
92 

615 

1  08 
334 
336 
1,005 
1,140 
58 
825 
154 

2IO 
38 
40 

188 
85 
4 
13,844 

1,544,494 

526,199 
211,742 
163,994 
94,200 
91,204 
52.214 
18,788 
16,128 
3.233 
3.244 

3.405 
3,117 
6,766 
3,669 
5.651 
4.786 
4.563 
1,400 
1,545 
4,682 
1.738 
2,109 
648 
1,484 

512 

612 
268 
1  02 
7,972 

1.572,938 

1,398,516 
976,579 
57i,5i8 
326,052 
140,698 
92,181 
48,272 
20,010 
14,790 
10,353 

8,651 
7.443 
8,038 
6,159 
6,596 
8,420 
8.037 
4.520 

4,221 
6,992 
3,754 
3.637 
1,279 
2,131 
1,217 
1,341 
856 
358 
34.178 

4.801,537 

Farmers.  .  . 

Mechanics,  not  specified.  ..    . 

Merchants  

Servants  

Miners  

Mariners  

Clerks  

Weavers  and  spinners 

Physicians  

Seamstresses,     dressmakers, 

Clergymen  

Bakers  

Artists  

Butchers  

Tailors  

Shoemakers  

M  anuf  acturers      

Lawyers  .... 

Masons  

Engineers  

Teachers  

Millers  

Painters  

Printers  

Musicians  

Actors  

Hattera  

Other  occupations  

Occupations  not  stated,  and 
without  occupation  

*250,000 

Total  

250,000 

176,473 
24,649 

640,086 
40,961 

1,768,175 
54.924 

2,874,687 
276,473 

2,808,913 
317,462 

8,518,334 
7U.469 

Deduct  citizens  of  the  United 
States  

Aliens.  

250,000 

151.824 

599.125 

I.7I3.2SI 

2,598,214 

2,491.451 

7,803,865 

•Estimated. 


200 


No.  10. — Statement,  by  customs  districts,  of  the  passengers  arrived  in  the 
Page  XXV.   United  States  during  the  calendar  year  1870,  distinguishing  citizen  from 
alien  passengers,  and  permanent  from  transient  immigrants. 


Districts. 

i-o 

5s 

II 

gp 

v 

•3-5 
** 

11 

•J  •-« 

a  fc  . 
0<°8 

.2  oj-w 
O  t-  rt 
J2  C  *-* 
gbOCO 

Passengers  not  immigrants. 

_O 
f 
f 

1 

Total  aliens. 

Citizens  of  the  United 
States. 

Foreigners  not  intend- 
ing to  remain  in  the 
United  States. 

Total  passengers  not 
immigrants. 

33,962 
II 

2,158 

1.469 
ii 

3.627 
ii 

30,335 

31.804 
ii 
123 
114 

10 

3 
5 
227,182 
490 
4 
9.348 
565 

12 

541 

818 
439 
1,421 
56 
12,748 
45,166 
21,871 
6.493 
4-417 
4,800 
5,484 
84 
70 
833 

12 

33 

2,787 

i 
8 

Edgartown  

123 

118 

IO 

123 
109 
9 
3 

2 
224,688 
470 
4 
9,272 
565 

New  Bedford  

4 

5 
I 

9 

I 
I 
9 
22,418 
113 

Providence  

Fairfield            

4 
ii 
247,106 
582 
4 
10,037 
644 

12 

I 
6 
19.924 
92 

New  Haven  

3 

2,494 
20 

New  York  

Philadelphia  

Erie  

Baltimore  

689 
79 

76 

765 
79 

12 

3 
60 

2,844 
416 

*39 
1,620 

Key  West  

12 

Texas  

544 
818 
2,855 
1,732 
73 
14,368 
45,166 

3 

541 
758 
II 
1.316 
34 
12,748 
45,166 
13.406 
3.428 
4,080 
4,800 
1,817 

!4 
64 

833 

7 
33 
936 
I 

60 
428 

105 

22 

Puget  Sound  

2,416 
3" 
17 
1,620 

Willamette  

San  Francisco  

Passamaquoddy  

24,607 
7,696 
5,329 
4,800 

2,736 
1,203 
912 

8.465 
3.065 

337 

II.2OI 
4,268 
1,249 

Portland  and  Falmouth  

Detroit  

Champlain  

12.233 
84 
80 
833 

21 
52 

4.477 
7 
8 
73 
928 
192 
198 
107 
64 
18 
7 

2 
2 

6,749 

3.667 

IO,4l6 

Salem  and  Beverly  

IO 

6 

16 

Buffalo  Creek  

9 
'9 
1,690 
6 

5 

14 
19 

3.541 
6 
8 
73 
739 

Pensacola  

Genesee  

1.851 

8 

Alaska  

73 
401 

Cuyahoga  

338 

189 
192 
H9 
107 
35 
IS 

527 
192 
157 
107 
35 
18 
7 

Milwaukee  

Chicago  

41 

38 

79 

Oswego  

M  arblehead  

29 

29 

Portsmouth  

Newburyport  

7 

7 

2 
2 

Miami  

2 
2 

New  London  

Aggregate  .    . 

419.998 

4I.2O2 

22,493 

63.695 

356.303 

378,796 

201 


June  3,  1871—JEtat.  2p. 

55.    Faith  or  Fact 

History. — In  1871  the  Washington  Chronicle 
opened  its  columns  to  the  discussion  of  various 
questions,  and  a  number  of  letters  appeared  about 
religious  matters.  They  were  usually  signed  by 
some  pseudonym,  but  the  Rev.  Byron  Sunderland, 
Pastor  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  contributed 
many  over  his  own  signature.  In  looking  up  old 
records  in  the  fall  of  1909 1  found  that  I  had  written 
several  letters  and  that  some  of  them  appeared  in 
the  Chronicle.  I  had  failed  to  preserve  copies,  and 
had  entirely  forgotten  all  the  circumstances.  Pre- 
suming that  there  would  be  a  file  of  the  Chronicle 
in  the  Library  of  Congress,  I  wrote  to  my  friend, 
Mr.  J.  Lebovitz,  who  had  several  times  kindly 
helped  me  in  my  literary  work,  and  explained 
to  him  the  circumstances.  He  promptly  sent 
me  duplicate  typewritten  copies  of  this  letter  and 
the  next,  together  with  those  of  the  ones  to  which 
they  were  replies.  It  thus  appears  that  under  the 
pseudonym  of  "Pyrrho, "  I  had  answered  two 
letters  signed  "Trusting  Hope."  The  following 
is  the  first  of  Trusting  Hope's  letters,  which  ap- 

202 


FAITH  OR  FACT  203 

peared  in  the  Washington  Daily  Morning  Chronicle, 
Vol.  IX,  No.  181,  Thursday  June  i,  1871,  first  page. 

"ANXIOUS"  AND  "TRUSTING  HOPE" 

To  the  Editor  of  the  Chronicle: 

"Anxious"  asks,  in  your  paper  of  the  29th,  "Is  not  my 
belief,  no  matter  what  it  is,  if  drawn  from  the  word  of  God 
and  believed  to  be  the  truth,  as  good  as  any  other  person's 
belief? "  I  answer,  the  good  or  evil  of  any  belief  can  only  be 
determined  by  its  results.  If  you  have  a  belief  that  now 
causes  you  to  hate  and  avoid  sin,  and  if,  in  eternity,  you  find 
yourself  saved,  then,  and  not  until  then,  can  you  say  that  your 
belief  is  entirely  good.  A  moment's  reflection  will  convince 
you  that  your  believing  a  thing  to  be  so  does  not  make  it  so, 
though  your  belief  may  have  been  the  result  of  great  study 
and  care.  To  illustrate,  you  may  have  spent  much  time  in 
learning  to  detect  counterfeit  notes.  A  new  counterfeit 
appears — so  good  an  imitation  of  the  genuine  that  honest 
bankers  take  and  pass  it.  You,  using  all  your  "detective 
knowledge, "  take  it,  but,  in  paying  it  out,  you  encounter 
one  more  expert  than  yourself,  who,  pointing  out  its  defects, 
shows  you  that  it  is  counterfeit.  Your  believing  it  to  be 
genuine  did  not  make  it  so.  Thus  is  it  in  religious  belief. 
Our  believing  this  or  that  cannot  alter  the  facts.  Faith  in  a 
few  easily  understood  utterances  of  the  Bible  will  insure  our 
salvation  from  the  control  of  sin  in  this  life,  and  from  its  pen- 
alties in  the  life  to  come.  You  are  right  when  you  say : ' '  All 
who  believe  in  Christ  and  obey  His  commands  will  be 
saved. "  Make  this  truth  the  basis  of  your  life;  let  its  fruit 
be  seen  in  your  daily  conduct,  and  don't  occupy  your  time 
asking  if  there  are  other  ways  of  salvation;  instead,  try  to 
make  all  men  believe  the  above  truth.  Salvation  of  men  will 
be  glorious  however  attained.  But  it  will  be  sorrowful  if  you 
and  I  lose  our  salvation  by  wasting  our  time  in  the  examina- 
tion of  questions  for  the  answers  to  which  we  can  well  afford 
to  wait  until  we  meet  the  Great  Teacher  in  the  other  world. 

TRUSTING  HOPE. 


204  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

Whether  I  gave  the  name  "  Faith  or  Fact"  to 
my  letter  I  do  not  know,  though  this  seems  prob- 
able. It  was  written  May  29,  1871,  and  signed: 
Pyrrho. 

Daily  Morning  Chronicle,  Washington,  D.C.,  Vol.  IX,  No.  183,  June 
3,  1871,  first  page. 


To  the  Editor  of  the  Chronicle: 

"Trusting  Hope"  is  a  fair  representative  of  the  old  school 
orthodoxy.  He  says  that  "the  good  or  evil  of  any  belief 
can  only  be  determined  by  its  results, "  and  that  "believing 
a  thing  to  be  so  does  not  make  it  so. "  Salvation,  then,  is 
not  a  question  of  faith  but  a  question  of  fact.  If  you  happen 
to  believe  the  truth  you  will  be  saved ;  if  not,  not.  And  it 
makes  no  difference  why  your  belief  is  wrong,  it  is  simply 
the  fact  that  it  is  wrong  which  insures  your  damnation. 
There  is  a  definite  boundary  line  which,  though  it  cannot  be 
seen,  yet  exists,  and  all  who,  from  any  cause,  get  over  it,  are 
lost.  This  is  an  admirable  arrangement  for  those  on  one 
side  the  line  but  pretty  hard  for  those  on  the  other.  It 
certainly  must  require  a  strong,  trusting  hope  to  get  through 
life  on  such  a  doctrine.  If  Mr.  T.  H.  should  find  in  the  end 
that  he  had  made  a  mistake,  neither  his  trust  nor  his  hope 
would  avail  him  anything  then.  He  is  lost. 

PYRRHO. 


June  10,  1871—SEtat.  29. 

56.    The  Analogy  of  Religion 

History. — "Trusting  Hope"  (see  the  last  title) 
replied  to  my  letter,  using  the  same  title.  His 
second  letter  appeared  in  the  Chronicle  for  Wed- 
nesday, June  7,  1871  (ibid.,  No.  186),  and  is  as 
follows : 

FACT  AND  FAITH 

To  the  Editor  of  the  Chronicle: 

I  reply  to  "Pyrrho"  that  whether  my  orthodoxy  be  old 
or  young  faith  cannot  alter  facts,  but  may  change  results. 
Salvation  is  a  question  of  both  fact  and  faith.  Salvation 
exists  whether  we  believe  it  or  not.  To  avail  ourselves  of  it 
we  must  believe  in  it  and  comply  with  its  conditions.  You 
are  right  in  saying  "that  it  is  simply  the  fact  that  a  belief 
is  wrong  that  insures  damnation, "  just  as  truly  as  that  the 
inebriate  destroys  himself  by  believing  that  whiskey  is  good 
for  him. 

Yes,  there  is  a  boundary  line  in  Divine  as  in  human  law. 
Violate  either  and  the  penalty  (unless  pardoned)  follows. 
But  this  line  can  be  seen  in  the  Divine  law  as  well  as  in 
the  human.  Yes,  there  is  a  hard  side  to  this  arrangement. 
Is  it  sensible  to  choose  it?  Yes,  it  does  require  a  strong 
trusting  hope  to  get  through  life  on  this  doctrine.  But  there 
is  a  Strong  Friend  who  gives  us  this  hope,  and  teaches  us  in 
His  word  how  to  keep  it  strong. 

205 


206  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

Thanks  for  the  reminder  that  I  may  make  a  mistake. 
Is  this  danger  a  mutual  one?  Older  school  men  than  you  or 
I  have  made  this  mistake.  And  men,  too,  who  in  their  day 
must  have  held  positions  analogous  to  those  of  church 
members  now.  See  Matthew,  vii,  verses  21,  22,  23. 

That  word  "lost"  which  you  use  is  a  "terrible  word." 
Faith  in  Jesus  Christ's  plan  of  salvation  is  the  basis  of  my 

TRUSTING  HOPE. 

It  will  be  seen  that  he  uses  the  same  argument 
as  that  of  Butler's  Analogy.  I  was  familiar  with 
that  work,  and  had  always  seen  the  fallacy  in- 
volved. I  seized  this  opportunity  to  point  it  out, 
and  replied  as  follows  on  the  8th  and  it  appeared 
on  Saturday  the  loth. 

Ibid.,  No.  189,  June  10,  1871,  first  page. 


To  the  Editor  of  the  Chronicle: 

As  near  as  I  can  understand  "Trusting  Hope,"  his 
doctrine  is  this:  "Faith  in  Jesus  Christ's  plan  of  salvation" 
insures  salvation  to  all  who  possess  it.  And  he  admits 
"that  it  is  simply  the  fact  that  a  belief  is  wrong  that  insures 
damnation. "  The  Divine  law  therefore  is,  that  faith  secures 
salvation  and  want  of  faith  secures  damnation.  This  law, 
he  intimates,  is  as  inexorable  as  the  laws  of  the  physical 
universe.  Salvation  and  damnation  are  the  natural  conse- 
quences of  faith  and  want  of  faith,  in  the  same  sense  that 
health  and  disease  are  the  natural  consequences  of  sobriety 
and  inebriety.  This  is  substantially,  Bishop  Butler's 
celebrated  "Analogy  of  Religion." 

It  must  follow  from  this  that  men  are  often  punished  for 
believing  what  they  have  been  taught  to  believe;  and  for 
not  believing  what  they  have  been  taught  not  to  believe; 
i.e.,  for  doing  what  they  honestly  think  to  be  right,  and  what 
they  would  have  done  even  if  they  could  have  avoided  it. 


THE  ANALOGY  OF  RELIGION  207 

But  "Trusting  Hope"  claims  that  this  is  no  more  than  is 
true  also  of  physical  laws.  True  enough;  but  here  is  the 
distinction:  it  is  our  mistakes,  arising  from  our  ignorance 
of  physical  laws,  and  the  results  which  we  actually  see  to 
follow  from  these  mistakes,  which  teach  us  to  know  those 
laws  and  avoid  the  recurrence  of  these  mistakes.  It  is 
this  temporal  damnation,  through  ignorance,  which  leads 
us  to  temporal  salvation,  through  science.  Does  "Trust- 
ing Hope"  suppose  this  to  be  true  of  eternity?  Is  the 
"gulf"  between  Dives  and  Lazarus  ever  recrossed?  Is 
any  profit  ever  derived  from  the  experiences  of  Hell? 
We  of  this  life  certainly  never  derive  any,  since  no  one 
ever  returns  to  tell  us  what  they  are.  Those  who  are 
saved  profit  nothing  by  them,  for  they  are  saved  already; 
and  those  who  are  lost,  according  to  Scripture,  are  eter- 
nally lost.  I  desire,  therefore,  in  all  candor  to  ask  "Trust- 
ing Hope"  whether  there  is  not,  after  all,  a  serious  defect  in 
this  old  time  analogy,  and  whether,  in  fact,  there  is  any 
proper  analogy  between  the  operation  of  physical  and 
Divine  laws  applicable  to  human  rewards  and  punishments. 

PYRRHO. 


June,  1871—SEtat.  JO. 

57.    Gag  Law 

History. — Written  about  the  middle  of  June, 
1871.  This  article  relates  to  the  "symposium" 
in  which  I  participated  (see  the  last  two  titles), 
and  "Pyrrho"  is  here  mentioned  among  the  con- 
tributors. I  may  have  written  other  letters  with  a 
different  sobriquet,  but  I  think  the  other  writers 
(Oukapistos,  etc.),  were  members  of  the  League. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  II,  No.  16,  June,  1871. 


IN  America  the  Press  is  said  to  be  free.     There  is  no 
greater  popular  error.     It  is  true  that  the  State  does 
not  interfere,  the  military  authorities  are  not  called 
upon  to  suppress  the  publication  of  private  sentiments,  and 
the  Church  cannot  directly  compel  a  paper  to  retract  its 
utterances.     Yet  the  latter  power  is  daily  exercised  in  a 
manner  equally  as  effective  and  scarcely  less  contemptible 
than  open  and  successful  compulsion  would  be  regarded. 
The  Press  of  to-day  comes  far  short  of  expressing  the 
popular  mind.     This  is  true  in  politics,  but  it  is  more 
especially  apparent  in  religion.     There  are  whole  volumes 
of  religious  thought  which  never  do  and  never  can  find 
utterance. 

An  amusing  illustration  of  these  remarks  is  to  be  seen  in 

208 


GAG  LAW  209 

the  recent  ebullition  which  sprung  up  on  the  occasion  of  the 
general  convention  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion, held  in  Washington  during  the  latter  part  of  May. 
Bishop  Hopkins  took  especial  pains  to  deliver  a  lengthy 
discourse  against  "Modern  Skepticism,"  warning  young 
men  against  the  conclusions  of  Darwin  and  other  scientists, 
and  staking  off  his  ground  with  an  air  of  the  greatest 
profundity.  The  discourse  was,  at  bottom,  hollow  and  full 
of  glaring  fallacies,  but  it  was  published  entire  in  all  the 
daily  papers  and  made  great  capital  of  by  the  evangelical 
community.  Great  efforts  were  made  by  the  Liberal  and 
reflecting  class  here  to  refute  this  and  other  paralogisms  of 
this  august  body,  but  they  were  generally  denied  a  hearing. 
One  daily  paper,  however,  be  it  said  to  its  credit,  did  con- 
descend to  vouchsafe  a  portion  of  one  column  for  the 
discussion,  by  both  sides,  of  these  questions,  though  this 
distinction  was  made,  viz.,  that  the  orthodox  might  be  as 
severe  as  they  pleased,  but  the  un-orthodox  must  emascu- 
late and  dilute  their  articles  to  the  greatest  possible  tenuity. 
Yet  even  under  such  a  rule,  over  the  sobriquets  of  "Dele- 
gate," "Oukapistos, "  "Critic, "  "A  Sunday-school  Scholar, " 
and  "Pyrrho, "  some  telling  blows  have  been  dealt  at  the 
rotten  citadel  of  Evangelicalism,  and  some  small  earnest 
given  of  the  power  that  would  be  wielded  by  the  Liberal 
element  of  the  community  if  the  Press  was  really  free. 

14 


June,  1871—SEtat.  JO. 

58.    Benefit  of  Clergy 

History. — Written  in  June,  1871. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  II,  No.  16,  June,  1871. 


IT  was  the  custom  in  old  times,  in  England,  whenever  a 
crime  was  committed,  if  the  perpetrator  of  it  was  a 
person  "in  orders,"  instead  of  trying  him  by  the  civil 
tribunals,  to  turn  him  over  to  the  ecclesiastical  courts  to  be 
tried.     This  privilege  was  afterwards  extended  to  many 
persons  not  in  orders,  and  was  at  length  carried  so  far  as  to 
embrace  all  persons  who  could  read,  it  being  presumed,  in 
those  early  days,  that  any  one  who  could  read  must  have 
some  high  connection  with  the  Church. 

The  ecclesiastical  courts,  being  unwilling  to  admit  that  a 
member  of  the  Church  could  be  capable  of  committing  a 
crime,  gave  them  a  kind  of  a  mock  trial,  and  invariably 
found  them  not  guilty.  So  universal  was  this  practice  of 
clearing  all  who  were  tried  in  this  manner  that  it  was  re- 
garded a  peculiar  benefit  to  be  turned  over  to  the  ecclesi- 
astical courts;  and,  sensibly  enough,  in  order  to  save  the 
unnecessary  expense  of  this  farcical  trial,  the  practice  was 
finally  adopted  of  letting  them  go  as  soon  as  it  was  found 
that  they  were  entitled  to  the  benefit  of  clergy,  as  this  was 
styled.  So  certain  was  it  that  they  could  not  possibly  have 
been  guilty  of  crime,  since  they  held  rank  in  the  holy  Church ! 

2IO 


BENEFIT  OF  CLERGY  *n 

The  result  was  that  every  depraved  wretch  who  had  an 
inclination  to  commit  outrages  upon  society  rushed  into  the 
Church,  put  on  the  cloak  of  religion,  perpetrated  his  villainy 
and  claimed  the  benefit  of  clergy.  Such  a  loop-hole  for  the 
escape  of  criminals  became,  at  length,  intolerable,  and  in  a 
more  enlightened  age  the  civil  power  found  it  necessary  to 
abridge  the  benefit  of  clergy,  and  has  finally  practically 
abolished  it. 

The  object  of  this  notice  is  to  show  how  eager  the  Church 
naturally  is  to  screen  its  members  from  any  guilt,  in  order 
to  assert  its  own  immaculate  purity.  And  this  is  as  true  of 
it  to-day  as  it  was  five  centuries  ago.  We  have  a  special  ex- 
ample of  this  directly  under  our  eye.  One  Wm.  G.  Finney, 
of  the  city  of  Washington,  has  just  been  defeated  in  a  libel 
suit  against  the  publisher  of  the  National  Republican,  for 
publishing  an  account  of  his  base  criminality  with  a  woman 
who  had  been  placed  under  his  official  charge.  He  was 
fairly  beaten  by  an  impartial  trial,  and  the  unanimous 
verdict  of  twelve  of  his  peers,  on  the  sole  ground  that  every- 
thing published  about  him  was  true. 

This  man  was  a  prominent  church-member,  a  zealous 
exhorter,  a  pragmatical  spiritual  adviser  of  the  convicts 
confined  in  the  jail,  and  a  leading  temperance  reformer.  No 
sooner  was  the  accusation  made  public,  exposing  his  base 
conduct,  than  he  appealed  to  his  church,  had  a  trial,  was 
acquitted  and  had  his  character  completely  vindicated,  and 
all  with  the  greatest  alacrity!  He  then  procured  a  trial 
by  his  temperance  organization,  which,  as  is  well  known 
here,  is  only  a  tail  to  the  Congregational  kite,  and  lo!  his 
double  innocence!  He  had  received  his  benefit  of  clergy, 
and  was  now  prepared  to  wage  an  offensive  warfare  against 
the  libellous  newspaper.  The  result  has  been  stated,  but 
very  few  were  obliged  to  change  their  minds  because  the 
verdict  of  a  corrupt  church  council  had  been  overruled. 


June,  1871—SEtat.  JO. 

59.  Washington  Items  (  being  an  account 
of  the  meeting  in  Washington  of  The 
International  Convention  of  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association) 

History. — Some  member  of  the  League  furnished 
a  monthly  account  of  special  happenings  in 
Washington.  None  came  in  this  month  and  I 
supplied  the  deficiency  with  this  article,  written 
at  the  end  of  June,  1871. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  n,  No.  16,  June,  1871. 


WASHINGTON  has  had  a  visitation,  not  of  Divine 
Providence,  but  of  the  self-elected  representa- 
tives thereof,  in  the  shape  of  a  religious  meeting 
styled  "The  International  Convention  of  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association."  Why  this  organization  is  known 
as  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  has  hitherto 
been  to  us  an  inscrutable  mystery,  for  its  membership  seems 
to  be  chiefly  made  up  of  fossils  of  the  last  generation;  but 
Donn  Piatt,  the  witty  editor  of  the  Capital,  of  this  city, 
has  at  last  satisfied  our  inquiring  soul  by  the  revelation 
that  it  is  thus  designated  because  its  constituent  members 
have  been  "  born  again. "  He  also  suggests  that  they  might 

212 


WASHINGTON  ITEMS  213 

be  born  a  few  more  times  to  great  advantage,  which  is 
undoubtedly  true,  if  the  process  would  relieve  them  of  some 
of  the  antiquated  dogmas  which  make  up  their  religion. 

For  a  few  days  we  had  a  perfect  carnival  of  religious  zeal. 
The  Convention  busied  itself  in  the  solution  of  such  prob- 
lems as,  "How  shall  we  meet  the  skeptics?"  "What  shall 
we  do  with  the  Catholics?"  "How  shall  we  raise  money?" 
etc.,  while  the  enthusiasm  of  the  collected  piety  otherwise 
let  itself  off  in  various  other  less  dignified  ways.  Squads 
of  labelled  Y.  M.  C.  A's  marched  arm-in-arm  through  the 
streets  to  the  vocal  music  of  religious  hymns,  and  congre- 
gated on  the  street-corners  to  exhort  sinners  to  repentance, 
making  day  and  night  hideous  by  such  strains  as : 

"There  is  a  fountain  filled  with  blood." 

and  other  butcher-like,  bloodthirsty,  stanzas,  sung  draw- 
lingly  to  doleful  airs.  These  officious  dispensers  of  salva- 
tion even  attempted  to  avail  themselves  of  the  attraction 
afforded  by  the  music  in  one  of  the  public  parks,  and  failing 
to  induce  the  performers  to  suspend,  undertook  to  set  up 
a  religious  side-show.  They  were  soon  convinced  that 
however  great  may  be  the  power  of  human  lungs,  especially 
under  the  inspiration  of  the  glorious  doctrines  of  damnation, 
they  cannot  advantageously  compete  with  a  brass  band. 
The  observations  of  some  of  the  laymen  during  the  dis- 
cussion of  the  questions  mentioned  above,  were  marked 
more  for  their  simplicity  than  for  their  depth.  For  instance : 

(From  the  Chronicle's  report.) 

Mr.  Varnell  considered  and  concurred  in  the  remarks  of  the  first 
speaker,  that  controversy  with  a  skeptic  was  useless.  *  * 

Mr.  Harris,  of  Pittsburg,  had  known  an  old  man  to  whom  a  minister 
went  and  told  that  God  had  given  for  him  His  only  Son  who  loved  Him. 
The  man  asked  next  day  if  that  was  true,  and  when  satisfied  that  it 
was  so  he  became  a  Christian,  which  he  might  not  had  he  been 
approached  with  scientific  discussion. 

This  is  certainly  the  shortest  of  all  the  "short  and  easy" 
methods.  It  is,  of  course,  expedient  to  have  as  little  scien- 


214  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

tific  discussion  as  possible,  for  science  is  the  "skeptic's 
stronghold. 

But  the  event  of  the  Convention  was  the  address  by 
Prof.  Mark  Hopkins,  which  we  allude  to  elsewhere,  entitled 
"Modern  Skepticism  in  Its  Relations  to  Young  Men — 
How  Shall  It  be  Met  by  Our  Associations?"  The  address 
was  much  more  temperately  written  than  such  productions 
usually  are,  and  the  writer  even  conceded  that  "skepti- 
cism," "has  strength, — but"  he  added,  "there  is  something 
stronger. "  A  consoling  reflection. 

The  meeting  seemed  to  be  unanimously  agreed  that 
"faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ"  was  the  purgative  pill 
which  is  to  cleanse  the  souls  of  men  of  all  defilement, — that 
"the  blood  of  Jesus"  was  the  patent  medicine  which  would 
relieve  humanity  of  its  multitudinous  ills  and  aches,  and 
that  all  obstinate  heretics  who  refused  to  take  such  nauseous 
physic  were  fit  subjects  for  eternal  brimstone.  With  this 
unshaken  conviction,  and  in  the  innocent  supposition  that 
Professor  Mark  Hopkins  had  utterly  demolished  the  ground- 
work and  structure  of  "infidelity,"  the  delegates  packed 
up  their  trunks  and  took  themselves  off. 


June,  1871 — SEtat.  SO. 

60.    Doctrinal  Sketches 

[No.  8]    The  Immaculate  Conception 
History. — Written  June  4-6,  1871. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  II,  No.  16,  June,  1871. 


IT  is  strange,  to  say  the  least,  that  so  important  a  fact 
as  that  the  mother  of  Jesus  was  conceived  without  sin, 
should  not  have  been  generally  known  and  defini- 
tively settled  until  the  year  1854;  vet  such  is  its  history. 
Great  and  good  men,  it  is  true,  had  long  known  it,  philo- 
sophers and  schoolmen  had  declared  it,  wise  thinkers  had 
reasoned  it  out,  the  majority  of  the  Romish  church  had 
virtually  adopted  it,  the  Greek  church  had  for  twelve  and 
the  Roman  for  fourteen  centuries  been  celebrating  a  festi- 
val in  honor  of  the  event;  yet  such  was  the  doubt  and  un- 
certainty, and  so  great  had  been  the  diversity  of  opinion, 
even  among  the  leaders  of  the  church,  that  it  was  reserved 
for  the  present  Pope  Pio  Nono,  on  the  8th  of  December 
1854,  to  declare  the  doctrine  at  length  irrevocably  estab- 
lished. 

The  mode  of  arriving  at  this  truth — for  no  glimpse  of  it 
is  to  be  gathered  from  the  Bible — is  very  peculiar  and  in- 
teresting as  serving  to  illustrate  the  wonderful  power  of 
logic  and  its  vast  importance  to  man  when  turned  to  the 


2i6  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

discovery  of  the  great  truths  of  divinity.  It  is  becoming 
customary  for  the  purpose  of  magnifying  the  rational  powers, 
to  refer  to  Le  Verrier's  remarkable  discovery  of  the  planet 
Neptune  by  deductions  from  the  observed  perturbation 
of  Uranus;  but  how  insignificant  is  this  gross  material 
circumstance,  when  compared  with  that  we  are  discoursing 
of,  and  yet  the  latter  is  equally  well  calculated  to  exalt 
human  nature. 

The  difference  between  the  religious  and  the  material 
or  scientific  reasoner  is  this:  The  latter,  before  commencing 
to  reason,  searches  about  in  the  sacred  Universe  of  God 
after  his  premises  in  the  shape  of  facts  or  things,  and  having 
found  these,  without  knowing  whether  it  is  pleasing  to  God 
or  not  that  he  should  possess  a  knowledge  of  them,  proceeds 
to  deduce  his  conclusions  from  their  discovered  existence. 
The  former,  on  the  other  hand,  derives  his  premises  from 
his  Bible,  which  he  knows  God  intended  him  to  read,  since 
He  gave  it  to  a  man  as  His  express  revelation  to  him  of  all 
He  desired  him  to  know  of  the  facts  of  the  Universe. 

But  he  rationally  concludes  that  God  is  not  displeased 
that  he  should  exercise  these  reasoning  powers  which  He 
has  given  him  in  the  discovery,  by  logical  deduction  from 
these  facts,  of  other  ulterior  truths  which  they  are  thus 
found  indirectly  to  inculcate.  Hence  he  is  not  only  far 
safer,  since  he  has  come  legitimately  by  his  premises,  but 
he  is  much  more  certain  that  his  conclusions  are  correct, 
since  he  knows  his  premises  are  true,  because  they  are  found 
in  the  word  of  God  Himself.  This  is  the  way  we  have 
come  into  the  possession  of  many  valuable  truths  both  with 
respect  to  the  future  and  the  past.  And  this  is  how  we 
have  received  the  doctrine  of  the  Immaculate  Conception. 

The  divine  nature  of  Jesus  was  taken  as  a  starting  point. 
But  Jesus  was  born  of  a  woman  and  after  the  manner  of  all 
men.  He  was  begotten  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  but  the  Holy 
Ghost  would  never  condescend  to  have  intercourse  with 
one  stained  with  sin.  Mary  was  therefore  clearly  a  spotless 
woman,  and  the  only  question  remaining  was  at  what 


DOCTRINAL  SKETCHES  217 

period  she  had  been  purified  of  the  original  sin.  Regenera- 
tion or  the  new  birth,  of  which  I  have  previously  spoken, 
is  only  attained  through  faith  in  the  Saviour,  but  at  this 
time  the  Saviour  was  not  born.  When  then  was  Mary 
cleansed  of  sin?  It  is  well  known  to  every  reader  of  Scrip- 
ture that  Jeremiah  was  sanctified  before  birth  in  his  mother's 
womb  (Jer.  I,  6).  Here  was  another  fact,  another  premise. 
The  conclusion  was  irresistible  that  Mary  was  also  thus 
sanctified;  and  there  was  no  substantial  reason  why  this 
sanctification  should  have  taken  place  after  rather  than 
before  conception.  Yet  it  was  here  that  the  chief  discussion 
arose.  All  were  willing  to  admit  the  immaculate  birth  of 
Mary,  but  many  hesitated  long  before  conceding  the  purity 
of  St.  Anna's  conception.  Some  held  that  the  sanctification 
took  place  when  the  soul  of  Mary  took  possession  of  her 
body;  others  that  it  was  while  the  foetus  was  still  in  its 
embryonic  stage ;  others  still  that  it  occurred  immediately 
after  conception ;  but  the  learning  and  logical  powers  of  the 
great  Franciscan  scholastic,  John  Duns-Scotus,  succeeded, 
at  length,  in  so  firmly  establishing  the  extreme  doctrine  of 
the  Immaculate  Conception,  that,  as  before  remarked,  it  has 
become  universal;  and  it  is  far  better  known  to-day  that 
the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary  was  begotten  without  sin  than  it  is 
that  such  a  planet  as  Neptune  exists. 

The  kindred  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation  will  naturally 
form  the  subject  of  my  next  sketch. 


June,  1871    Mtat.  SO. 

61.    Scraps  of  Ecclesiastical  History 

No.  4.    Church  Councils  (Continued) 
History. — Written  June  6,  1871. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  II,  No.  16,  June,  1871. 


TE   Councils   which  I  considered  in   my  previous 
article,  were  among   the   most  important  of  the 
earlier  ones.     I  shall  dwell  principally  in  the  present 
notice  upon  the  three  most  important  of  the  latter  synods, 
viz.,  those  of  Basel,  Constance  and  Trent. 

It  may,  however,  be  observed  in  passing,  respecting  some 
of  the  minor  councils,  that  that  of  Chalcedon  (451  A.D) 
asserted  the  doctrine  of  the  union  of  the  divine  and  human 
nature  in  Christ;  the  third  Lateran  Council  (A.D.  1179 
condemned  the  errors  and  impieties  of  the  Waldenses  and 
Albigenses  (of  whose  persecution  I  shall  treat  on  another 
occasion);  the  fourth  Lateran  Council  (A.D.  12 15)  held 
under  Pope  Innocent  III,  asserted  and  confirmed  the  dogma 
of  transubstantiation  and  decreed  the  extirpation  of  heresy; 
the  first  synod  of  Lyon  (1245  A.D.)  was  held  for  the  purpose 
of  promoting  the  Crusades,  while  the  second  synod  of  Lyon 
(1274  A.D.)  made  a  last  vain  attempt  to  reunite  the  Greek 
and  Latin  churches.  Interspersed  between  these  were 
many  other  councils  convened  to  suppress  this  or  that 
particular  heresy  or  to  depose  some  offending  officer. 

218 


CHURCH  COUNCILS  219 

The  Council  of  Constance  sat  from  A.D.  1414-1418  and 
plays  a  prominent  part  in  the  history  of  the  Christian  church. 
The  reformatory  doctrines  of  the  Englishman  Wickliff  had 
reached  the  ears  of  a  Bohemian  preacher,  named  John  Huss, 
who  espoused  their  spirit  and  began  preaching  with  great 
vehemence  against  the  abuses  of  Catholicism.  Jerome  of 
Prague,  another  learned  divine,  joined  in  with  Huss  in  the 
demand  for  reform.  Their  teachings  were  heretical  and  a 
council  of  the  church  was  summoned  at  Constance  to  try 
them  for  their  doctrines.  History  unites  in  acknowledging 
the  trial  was  in  all  respects  unfair,  ex  parte  and  farcical,  but 
it  accomplished  its  object  and  Huss  and  Jerome  were  both 
burned  at  the  stake.  Besides  this  act,  three  rival  Popes, 
John  XXII,  Gregory  XII,  and  Benedict  XIII,  were  deposed 
by  this  council  and  Martin  V,  was  elected.  The  Emperor 
Sigismond  of  Germany,  sought  to  make  it  instrumental 
in  bringing  about  a  reform  in  the  church,  but  in  this  he 
appears  to  have  wholly  failed.  It  was  at  this  council  also 
that  the  supremacy  of  these  oecumenical  synods  over  the 
pope  himself  was  for  the  first  time  asserted. 

The  council  of  Basel  was  convened  in  the  year  1431  A.D., 
at  the  instance  of  this  same  Pope,  Martin  V.  It  aimed  at  a 
reconciliation  of  the  Hussite  party,  now  become  quite  for- 
midable, and  pursued  for  a  time  a  compromising  policy, 
yielding  now  to  the  wishes  of  the  Emperor  Sigismond  and 
now  to  those  of  the  Pope.  But  Martin  having  died  and 
been  succeeded  by  Eugenius  IV,  an  open  rupture  at  length 
occurred  between  Eugenius  and  the  council  and  the  latter 
proceeded  to  declare  the  Pope  a  heretic  and  formally  de- 
posed him  for  simony  and  perjury.  A  reaction,  however, 
immediately  set  in  and  the  new  Pope  Felix  V,  whom  they 
installed  was  obliged  to  resign  in  favor  of  Nicholas  V,  who 
refused  to  carry  out  the  reformatory  decrees  of  the  council 
of  Basel,  and  the  latter,  after  a  lingering  decadence  of  ten 
years  and  a  removal  to  Lausanne,  was  glad  to  receive  the 
amnesty  offered  by  Nicholas  and  close  its  career.  Its 
decrees  were  never  entered  in  the  church  registry  at  Rome 


220  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

and  are  all  regarded  as  null  and  void  by  the  Catholic  church, 
except  in  France  and  Germany  where,  with  some  modifi- 
cations, they  were  included  in  the  pragmatic  sanction. 
The  council  of  Trent,  which  lasted,  with  some  long  inter- 
missions, from  Dec.  13,  1545,  till  Dec.  4,  1563,  or  nearly 
eighteen  years,  was  in  all  respects  the  most  celebrated  of  all 
the  oecumenical  councils.  It  acted  upon  such  a  large  variety 
of  subjects  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  allude  to  any  but 
the  most  important.  Many  questions  looking  to  the  re- 
conciliation of  the  Papal  See  with  the  reformatory  districts 
of  Germany  and  with  the  Gallican  church,  were  discussed 
and  much  time  was  devoted  to  matters  of  church  discipline, 
but  the  great  work  of  the  council  was  the  adoption  of  a 
Rule  of  Faith,  in  which  it  at  length  succeeded,  and  to  the 
character  of  which  I  propose  to  confine  the  remainder  of 
my  remarks.  The  Rule  of  Faith  adopted  by  the  council 
of  Trent  consists  of  thirteen  articles.  The  first  is  the  theo- 
logical creed  of  the  believer.  This  does  not  greatly  differ 
from  that  of  all  Christians.  Its  principal  tenets  are:  the 
one  God,  maker  of  all  things;  one  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  be- 
gotten by  the  Holy  Ghost  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  consubstan- 
tial  with  the  Father,  the  Saviour  of  mankind;  and  one  Holy 
Catholic  and  Apostolic  church.  The  second  admits  the 
traditions  of  the  church.  The  third  gives  the  church  full 
power  of  interpreting  scripture.  The  fourth  admits  the 
seven  Sacraments.  The  fifth  embraces  the  doctrine  of 
original  sin  and  justification  as  laid  down  by  the  "holy 
Council  of  Trent."  The  sixth  accepts  the  doctrine  of 
Transubstantiation.  The  seventh  holds  that  there  is  a 
Purgatory  and  that  souls  therein  are  helped  by  the  suf- 
frages of  the  faithful.  The  eighth  declares  it  necessary  to 
invoke  the  saints  and  venerate  their  relics.  The  ninth 
enjoins  the  worship  of  images  of  Christ,  Mary,  and  the 
Saints.  The  tenth  sanctions  indulgences.  The  eleventh 
acknowledges  the  Roman  church  the  Mother  of  all  churches, 
and  vows  obedience  to  the  Pope.  The  twelfth  professes 
all  other  things  declared  by  the  holy  council  of  Trent,  and 


CHURCH  COUNCILS  221 

anathemizes  all  things  contrary  thereto.  The  thirteenth 
renews  all  the  above  and  promises  to  maintain  this  Rule  of 
Faith  to  the  end  of  life.  Such  was  the  work  of  the  council 
of  Trent  and  these  dogmas  are  all  of  them  still  persistently 
maintained  by  the  entire  Roman  church. 

The  last  great  oecumenical  council  called  by  Pope  Pius 
IX,  and  whose  sole  object  seemed  to  be  to  declare  the  In- 
fallibility of  the  Pope,  is  of  too  recent  origin  to  require 
further  mention. 


July,  1871—SEtat.  JO. 

62.    Comparative  Theology 

History. — Written  July  12,  1871. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  II,  No.  17,  June,  1871. 


WE  have  been  asked  if  we  were  opposed  to  religious 
instruction  in  schools  and  colleges.  To  this 
we  always  answer  that  we  are.  We  deem  any 
attempt  to  teach  one  religion  to  the  youth  of  the  country 
injurious,  as  tending  to  narrow  their  minds,  instead  of 
enlarging  them.  But  this  is  simply  because  it  has  always 
been  the  practice  to  teach  religion  dogmatically,  instead  of 
scientifically.  It  is  because,  not  content  to  teach  religion 
as  a  fact,  it  is  always  deemed  necessary  to  insist  that  it  is 
also  altogether  true.  It  seems  from  this  circumstance  to 
form  an  exception  to  all  other  kinds  of  knowledge.  The 
theological  doctor  tells  his  pupil,  in  effect,  that  such  or  such 
a  doctrine  is  laid  down  in  the  Bible,  and  forms  a  constituent 
element  of  Christian  faith.  So  far,  good,  because  true. 
But  when  he  goes  on,  as  he  always  thinks  he  must,  to  add 
that  this  doctrine  «  true,  and  every  other  inconsistent  there- 
with is  false,  he  becomes  wholly  unscientific,  and  inflicts  a 
real  injury  on  his  pupil  by  prejudicing  his  mind,  and  barring 
out  all  future  investigation  of  the  subject. 

If  theology  could  be  taught  scientifically  and  historically, 

222 


COMPARATIVE  THEOLOGY  223 

we  should  hail  and  welcome  it,  even  if  only  one  religion  were 
considered.  But  the  real  demand  of  the  age  in  this  matter 
is  a  comparative  theology.  As  comparative  philology  is 
becoming  so  vastly  important,  and  promising  even  to 
illumine  the  dim  origin  of  the  human  race,  and  as  compara- 
tive anatomy  is  opening  our  eyes,  and  showing  man  his 
true  place  in  nature,  so  comparative  theology,  involving  a 
scientific  and  historical  study  of  the  many  apparently 
incongruous  and  discordant  religions  which  have  prevailed 
in  the  world,  would  unfold  the  most  profound  and  useful 
truths  respecting  human  nature,  and  lay  a  foundation  for 
the  broadest  and  most  enlightened  views  of  human  destiny. 


July,  1871—JEtat.  SO. 

63.    Religious  War 

History. — -Written  July  13,  1871. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  II,  No.  17,  July,  1871. 


NEW  YORK  has  been  the  scene  of  a  bloody  conflict 
in  the  name  of  Christianity.  One  sect  of  the 
followers  of  the  "meek  and  lowly  Jesus"  under- 
took to  celebrate,  by  a  pompous  parade,  a  battle  fought  one 
hundred  and  eighty-one  years  ago,  in  which  they  happened 
to  do  the  most  butchery,  and  another  sect  of  the  same  holy 
religion  swore  they  should  not.  The  result  was  a  riot,  a 
massacre,  an  internecine  war.  Those  engaged  in  it  were 
fortunately  the  worst  class  of  society  in  the  country,  and 
though  thoroughly  imbued  with  love  of  Jesus  and  wholly 
devoted  to  the  service  of  God,  no  one,  but  for  the  name  of 
it,  would  care  how  many  were  dispatched  to  Heaven,  or 
how  few  were  left  to  earth.  Yet  over  and  above  the  national 
shame  of  a  religious  massacre  in  this  age  of  science  and  this 
land  of  freedom,  there  are  always  many  innocent  and  good 
citizens  outraged,  and  much  property  and  wealth  wantonly 
destroyed  in  such  disgraceful  performances. 

There  is  one  lesson  which  this  event  has  taught  the  Ameri- 
can people,  viz.,  that  they  are  not  yet  wholly  secure  from 
religious  fanaticism.  Those  wiseacres  who  so  confidently 

224 


RELIGIOUS  WAR  225 

declare  the  impossibility  of  religious  conflict,  those  who 
assert  that  the  day  of  physical  persecution  for  opinion's 
sake  is  past,  may  well  reflect  upon  the  New  York  massacre 
of  the  1 3th  of  July,  and  confess  their  error.  The  spirit  of 
both  sects,  and  particularly  of  the  Catholics,  is  as  intolerant 
and  belligerent  as  it  was  at  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholo- 
mew. The  Catholics  only  lack  opportunity  and  the  Protes- 
tants consolidation,  to  precipitate  the  whole  country,  at 
any  time,  into  a  religious  war  equal  to  the  terrible  Thirty 
Years  War  of  Europe  in  the  seventeenth  century. 

15 


July,  1871—JEtat.  SO. 

64.     Doctrinal  Sketches 

[No.  9]     The  Incarnation 

History. — Written  July  9  and  i  o,  1871. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  II,  No.  17,  July,  1871. 


THE  union  of  the  human  and  divine  in  the  person  of 
Jesus  Christ  is  one  of  the  great  mysteries  of  the 
Christian  religion.  He  was  the  God-man,  having 
at  once  all  the  attributes  of  divinity  and  all  the  susceptibili- 
ties to  pain  and  pleasure  of  humanity.  He  was  God  clothed 
in  the  flesh.  This  wonderful  combination  was  brought 
about  in  the  following  manner:  there  was  a  man  named 
Joseph,  a  carpenter,  who  lived  in  a  town  called  Nazareth, 
situated  in  Galilee,  a  province  of  Syria,  and  whose  father's 
name  was  either  Jacob  or  Heli  (for  authorities  differ).  This 
man  married  a  virgin  named  Mary,  but  in  a  manner  quite 
different  from  modern  marriages,  since,  as  it  seems,  they 
were  not  together,  when  the  nuptials  took  place.  When, 
however,  Joseph  first  came  into  the  presence  of  his  wife,  he 
discovered  that  she  was  with  child.  He  was  surprised  at 
this,  but,  "being  a  just  man,  and  not  willing  to  make  her 
a  public  example, "  he  proposed  to  put  her  away  privately. 
He  meditated  upon  the  matter  for  one  night,  and,  while 

226 


THE  INCARNATION  227 

dreaming,  an  angel  of  the  Lord  appeared  to  him  and  in- 
formed him  that  the  child  to  which  his  wife  was  to  give 
birth  was  begotten  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  not  by  any 
adulterous  rival.  It  turned  out  that  the  angel  Gabriel  had 
previously  appeared  to  Mary  and  forewarned  her  of  this  in- 
tended visit  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  thus  prepared  her  to  re- 
ceive His  embraces,  and  that  He  had  subsequently  appeared 
to  her  according  to  the  promise,  and  impregnated  her. 

Whether  the  angel  or  Mary  succeeded  finally  in  convinc- 
ing Joseph  that  his  wife's  pregnancy  was  due  to  divine  causes 
or  not,  is  not  so  certain.  He  evidently  despaired  of  making 
such  a  story  believed  in  his  neighborhood,  for  just  before 
the  child  was  born  he  left  Nazareth  and  went  to  a  town 
called  Bethlehem,  in  Judea,  under  pretence  of  being  re- 
quired there  to  pay  his  taxes,  and  took  his  wife  with  him. 
The  inn  at  which  they  had  to  put  up  was  full,  and  they  were 
obliged  to  take  lodgings  in  a  stable,  and  sleep  in  a  manger. 
Here  the  child  was  born.  This  child  was  Jesus  Christ,  the 
subsequent  founder  of  our  Christian  religion,  and  by  far 
the  greatest  personage  that  ever  lived  among  men.  That 
he  should  have  proved  such  is  not  at  all  surprising.  The 
blood  of  Divinity  coursed  in  his  veins.  He  was  the  im- 
mediate offspring  of  the  Holy  Ghost :  the  only  begotten  Son 
of  God.  This  was  unquestionably  a  real  case  of  intercourse 
between  the  Deity  and  a  mortal,  and  it  was  as  clearly  the 
only  case  of  the  kind.  Hercules  is  said  to  have  been  the 
fruit  of  the  union  of  Jupiter  with  Alcmena,  ^Eneas,  of  Venus 
with  Anchises,  and  other  such  condescensions  on  the  part 
of  the  Gods  are  recorded  in  the  books  of  Heathen  mythology ; 
but  no  one  now  credits  these  pagan  fables,  or  even  believes 
in  the  existence  of  their  Deities.  But  we  know  that  the 
Holy  Ghost  exists,  thousands  of  men  and  women  feeling 
each  day  his  influence  in  their  souls  (though  not  just  as 
Mary  did) ;  and  we  have  the  inspired  authority  of  Matthew 
and  Luke  for  the  various  parts  of  the  story  of  the  incarna- 
tion. It  is  a  sacred  romance,  recounting  the  amours  of  one 
branch  of  the  Godhead,  the  fruit  of  which  was  required  to 


828  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

complete  the  Trinity.  But  aside  from  the  beauty  of  the 
story,  the  doctrine  itself  is  of  immense  importance;  for  if 
the  divine  nature  of  Christ  be  disproved,  the  whole  Christian 
fabric  must  fall  to  the  ground. 


July,  1871— Mtat.  JO. 

65.    Scraps  of  Ecclesiastical  History 

No.  5.     Persecution  of  the  Albigenses 
History. — Writ-ten  July  n  and  12,  1871. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  II,  No.  17,  July,  1871. 


FOM  the  time  that  the  Christian  church  acquired 
power  and  influence  sufficient  to  enforce  its  doc- 
trines, there  never  was  a  time,  until  it  again  lost 
that  power,  when  there  were  not  persecutions  and  massacres, 
of  one  description  or  another,  going  on  in  its  name. 

I  shall  be  compelled  to  pass  over  many  which  would  be  of 
interest;  as,  for  example,  those  directed  against  Arius, 
Nestorius,  Pelagius,  Celestius,  Gottschalk  and  other  ad- 
vocates of  new  doctrines,  together  with  their  followers;  as 
also  the  many  persecutory  invasions  of  the  northern  nations, 
with  a  view  to  making  them  proselytes  to  Christianity;  and 
shall  confine  myself  to  a  few  of  the  most  important  perse- 
cutions and  wars  which  the  church  has  authorized,  in  the 
course  of  its  history.  And  it  may  be  here  worthy  of  remark 
that  those  events  of  which  I  shall  speak  first  occurred  prior 
to  the  Reformation,  and  therefore  had  the  sanction  of  the 
whole  Christian  Church. 

The  persecution  of  the  Albigenses,  though  contemporary 

229 


230  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

with  that  of  the  Waldenses,  will  occupy  me  first,  as  being 
the  less  important,  and  therefore  more  readily  disposed  of. 
As  late  as  the  close  of  the  I2th  century,  the  South  of  France 
had  been  infested  by  a  class  of  men  who  renounced  the 
supremacy  of  the  Popes  and  ignored  the  decrees  of  the 
Councils  of  the  Church.  Many  attempts  had  been  made 
to  convert  them  to  the  true  faith,  and  examples  had  been 
made  of  a  few  of  them,  but  all  to  no  avail. 

Early  in  the  I3th  century  a  papal  legate  named  Peter  of 
Castlenau  was  sent  among  them  commissioned  to  extirpate 
heresy  in  the  dominions  of  Count  Raymond  VI,  of  Toulouse. 
His  acts  so  exasperated  the  people  that  they  formed  a  con- 
spiracy and  assassinated  him.  Count  Raymond  had  toler- 
ated these  heretics  on  his  lands,  and  the  Church  had  long 
been  seeking  a  pretext  to  deprive  him  of  them.  The  murder 
of  the  legate  furnished  this  pretext,  and  in  the  year  1209 
Pope  Innocent  III  authorized  a  crusade  against  him  and  the 
heretical  band.  The  expedition  was  placed  under  the 
charge  of  three  legates,  Arnold,  Abbott  and  Milo;  while 
Simon,  Count  of  Montford,  commanded  the  troops.  They 
marched  upon  the  town  of  Beziers,  took  it  by  storm,  and 
indiscriminately  massacred  20,000  of  its  inhabitants, 
Catholics  as  well  as  heretics.  Arnold  gave  orders  to  "kill 
them  all, "  saying  " God  will  know  his  own" !  Many  other 
places  fell  in  the  same  manner,  and  hundreds  of  thousands 
were  remorselessly  butchered.  On  reaching  Toulouse  they 
met  with  a  determined  resistance,  which  required  much 
delay  and  prolonged  the  war  till  the  year  1229;  by  which 
time  the  unlimited  license  and  indulgence  granted  to  crusa- 
ders by  the  pope  had  caused  the  whole  region  to  become 
desolated  by  all  manner  of  outrage,  and  the  Albigenses, 
hunted  down  on  all  sides  and  driven  from  their  country, 
were  utterly  eradicated  from  the  soil,  and  ceased  to  exist. 
Besides  those  slaughtered  in  battles  and  massacred  by  the 
troops,  thousands  were  caught  fleeing  and  turned  over  to 
the  zealous  order  of  Dominicans,  to  be  burned  at  the  stake. 


October  SO,  1871— Mtat.  SO. 

66.  The  Sabbath  Question — Christians 
and  the  Israelites 

History. — Written  October  20,  1871.  Copied 
and  mailed  October  21,  1871.  There  was  at  that 
time  a  discussion  going  on  about  the  Christian 
Sabbath,  and  certain  persons  were  trying  to  have 
ordinances  passed  to  forbid  the  vending  of  news- 
papers on  Sunday.  Others  would  stop  the  street 
cars  from  running  on  Sunday.  A  certain  Mr.  Wm. 
Henry  Burr,  whom  I  knew  personally,  took  up  the 
cudgel  for  the  public  and  the  newsboys,  and  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Byron  Sunderland  replied  to  him  and 
others  through  the  columns  of  the  Chronicle.  It 
seemed  to  me  as  though  there  was  something  more 
to  be  said,  and  I  accordingly  contributed  this  item 
to  the  discussion.  The  next  day  after  it  appeared 
(Oct.  31)  Dr.  Sunderland,  in  replying  briefly  to 
two  other  communications  on  the  subject,  said: 
"The  article  by  'Ypsilon'  raises  an  interesting 
topic — 'Are  we  Christians,  Jews,  or  Infidels?' 
On  that  I  propose  to  speak  (Providence  permitting) 
next  Sabbath  evening.  I  hope  the  writer  and  his 
friends  will  be  present."  For  some  reason  I  did 

231 


23*        j       GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

not  go,  probably  because  too  busy,  but  also  because 
I  knew  that  the  subject  would  be  handled  in  a 
completely  one-sided  way,  and  without  any 
historical  background. 

Daily  Morning  Chronicle,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  IX,  No.  309, 
Oct.,  30, 1871,  second  page. 


To  the  Editor  of  the  Chronicle: 

Apropos  of  the  present  discussion  of  the  question  of  the 
"Christian  Sabbath,"  allow  me  a  few  brief  suggestions. 
Not  wishing  to  take  part  directly  in  this  discussion  by  enter- 
ing into  Scripture  arguments,  I  will  confine  myself  to  the 
mere  right  of  the  case. 

I  Premising  that  justice  is  not  a  question  of  majorities,  I  may 
say  that  we  have  in  Washington,  for  example,  two  sects, 
one  of  which  believes  that  the  seventh,  and  the  other  that 
the  first  day  of  the  week  should  be  observed  as  the  sacred 
day,  or  Sabbath,  consecrated  to  Divine  worship.  It  will 
not  perhaps  be  claimed  that  the  scruples  of  the  one  sect 
are  less  binding  or  less  sincere  than  those  of  the  other,  yet 
we  find  stringent  laws  in  force  requiring  the  observance  of 
the  first  day  of  the  week  by  all  citizens. 

The  effect  of  this  may  perhaps  be  best  observed  upon  the 
merchant  class,  who  are  more  equally  divided  upon  this 
question  than  any  other  class.  Those  who  believe  in  ob- 
serving the  seventh  day  must  close  their  shops  on  the  first 
day  by  law.  They  are  therefore  compelled  to  lose  both 
days,  or  else  violate  their  religion  by  trading  on  their  own 
Sabbath.  It  amounts  practically  to  this:  One  religious 
sect,  because  it  happens  to  outnumber  the  other,  has  so 
legislated  as  either  to  deprive  them  of  the  profits  of  one 
day's  labor  in  seven,  or  else  to  seduce  them,  through  pe- 
cuniary interest,  into  a  violation  of  their  consciences.  That 
many  adopt  the  latter  alternative  need  surprise  no  one,  for. 


THE  SABBATH  QUESTION  233 

suppose  the  case  reversed,  how  long  would  the  Christian 
Sabbath  be  observed?  Technical  scruples  always  yield  to 
the  influence  of  physical  need.  Who  would  sacrifice  one- 
sixth  of  his  gains  in  business  for  a  doubtful  principle  about 
which  doctrinarians  dispute?  Shocked  and  horrified  as  the 
present  ruling  sect  would  at  first  become  if  compelled  to 
observe  the  Jewish  Sabbath,  it  would  not  be  long  before 
some  pretext  or  subterfuge  would  be  found  to  justify  it. 
The  arguments  of  "W.  H.  B.,"  which  fall  powerless  upon 
present  prejudice,  would  then  be  eagerly  seized  and  accepted 
without  criticism. 

Is  it  not  time  that  the  constitutionality  of  Sunday  laws, 
whose  operation  is  so  unjust  and  demoralizing,  be  inquired 
into?  How  long  shall  majorities  control  minorities  in  their 
consciences  by  appeals  to  their  stomachs?  What  does 
it  amount  to  but  a  system  of  refined  persecution  to  enforce 
sectarian  dogmas? 

Respectfully  yours, 

YPSILON. 

October  21, 1871. 


November  IO,  1871 — sEtat.  SO. 

67.    Announcement 

History. — Written    early   in    September,    1871, 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  II,  No.  18,  August,  1871. 


THE  publication  of  the  ICONOCLAST  will  be  suspended 
with  this  number.  For  eighteen  months  we  have 
struggled  on,  battling  in  a  most  unpopular  cause, 
cheered  only  by  the  support  and  encouragement  of  a  few 
earnest  friends,  and  the  conviction  that  the  principles  we 
have  advocated  are  destined  eventually  to  triumph.  How 
much  our  humble  efforts  may  have  contributed  to  the 
diffusion  of  those  principles  we  know  not,  but  we  believe 
that  even  the  slightest  rational  advocacy  in  the  cause  we 
have  espoused  is  not  without  avail.  Though  insufficiently 
supported  from  without,  we  have  persisted  in  our  little 
enterprise,  and  would  not  now  yield  but  for  a  crisis  in  the 
management  of  the  paper  which  it  is  here  unnecessary  to 
explain.  We  hope  that  the  ICONOCLAST  may  at  no  distant 
day  again  present  itself  to  the  Liberal  public,  and  in  a  form 
more  deserving  its  patronage.  In  the  meantime  the  N.  L. 
R.  L.  will  endeavor  to  extend  its  labors  to  other  fields, 
continuing,  as  before,  to  exert  itself  on  behalf  of  liberty, 
equality,  and  progress. 

Unless,  otherwise  directed,  we  shall  immediately  return 

234 


ANNOUNCEMENT  235 

to  our  subscribers  all  money  received  during  the  months  of 
August,  September,  and  October,  and  shall  keep  a  record 
of  all  other  indebtedness  for  future  refundment.  If  this 
arrangement  be  unsatisfactory  to  any  one,  complaints  can 
be  addressed  "THE  ICONOCLAST,  Washington,  D.  C." 


Nooember  tO,  1871 — JEtat.  SO. 

68.    Mental  vs.  Physical  Liberty 

History. — Written  August  9,  1871. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  H,  No.  18,  August,  1871. 


TO  be  free  is  the  great  object  which  all  men  seek,  and 
this  means  physical  freedom — to  have  the  power 
to  do  as  they  please,  to  act  according  to  their 
desires,  is  the  end  aimed  at.  It  should  never  be  lost  from 
view,  it  should  never  be  compromised,  no  substitute  for  it 
should  ever  be  recognized.  But  we  must  distinguish  be- 
tween the  end  and  the  means,  between  the  fact  and  the  con- 
dition. The  necessary  means  of  securing  physical  liberty 
is  mental  liberty ;  it  is  the  condition  precedent.  No  people 
ever  were  free  to  act  until  they  were  first  free  to  think.  No 
religious  nation  ever  was  a  free  nation.  The  freedom  the 
American  nation  enjoys  is  due  altogether  to  its  disregard 
of  mental  and  spiritual  authority.  By  a  peculiar  good 
fortune  its  foundations  were  laid  by  free-thinkers;  its  magna 
charta  and  its  constitution  were  purged  of  all  the  puritanical 
and  religious  provisions  which  are  to  be  found  in  all  instru- 
ments of  this  nature.  In  other  words,  the  government  was 
founded  in  mental  liberty,  and  physical  liberty  has  grown 
out  of  it  as  naturally  as  the  oak  grows  from  the  acorn.  It  is 
true  that  our  judicature,  which  is  in  many  respects  indepen- 

236 


MENTAL  vs.  PHYSICAL  LIBERTY          237 

dent  of  the  constitution,  and  is  borrowed  bodily  from  the 
bigoted  code  of  England,  has  encroached  largely  upon  the 
original  spirit  of  mental  freedom,  and  many  modern  inter- 
lopers from  the  priest-ridden  countries  of  Europe  have 
sought,  and  not  wholly  without  success,  to  infuse  their 
bigoted  principles  by  driblets  into  our  national  polity;  but 
it  is  all  done  either  in  violation  of  those  charters  or  wholly 
outside  of  them.  Our  people  are  not,  however,  by  any 
means  free  from  the  fetters  of  the  mind.  All  the  great 
moral  questions  which  have  been,  and  are  being  agitated 
in  this  country,  abundantly  establish  this.  They  are  in 
such  a  mental  condition  as  willingly  to  submit  to  the  abuses 
of  authority.  The  slavery  conflict  revealed  their  mental 
bondage.  The  social  questions  now  just  fairly  rising,  for  the 
first  time,  to  the  surface,  only  point  to  a  prospective  mental 
emancipation.  The  religious  character  of  the  women  make 
them  the  willing  slaves  of  their  "lords"  whom  they  worship 
while  imagining  they  love.  The  struggle  just  now  commen- 
cing between  labor  and  capital  shows  the  weakness  of  the 
former  to  lie  in  its  reverence,  and  the  strength  of  the  latter 
in  its  authority.  In  other  words,  the  hands  of  labor  can 
never  be  unfettered  till  its  brain  is  disenthralled.  It  is 
impossible  to  organize  labor  by  its  own  enfranchisement, , 
on  account  of  its  tendency  to  worship  some  other  idol  of 
fancy,  which  has  no  more  to  do  with  its  interests  than  would  • 
the  worship  of  Dagan.  In  this  country  that  idol  now  is 
political  party.  To  divert  men  from  this  fanaticism  has 
thus  far  proved  utterly  impossible.  In  France  that  idol 
is  France.  In  Germany  it  is  Empire,  and  in  England  it  is 
Law.  Their  minds  are  enslaved,  and  while  this  is  so  their 
bodies  never  can  be  freed.  Give  us  mental  freedom  and 
we  will  give  you  physical  freedom. 


November  IO,  1871— Mtat.  SO. 

69.    The  Social  Evil 

History. — Written  September  4,  1871. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington  D.  C.,  Vol.  II,  No.  18,  August,  1871. 


GREAT  sensation  has  been  produced  in  this  city 
during  the  past  month  by  the  action  of  a  few  "re- 
spectable women"  in  stirring  up  the  "social  evil." 
We  cannot  be  expected  to  give  the  Protean  subject  an 
adequate  notice  in  our  columns,  but  we  deem  it  quite  appro- 
priate to  speak  of  it  in  reference  to  its  religious  phases. 
While  we  are  more  inclined  to  commend  than  to  condemn 
the  work  which  has  been  begun  here,  we  cannot  but  confess 
that  we  regard  it  wholly  superficial.  The  only  way  to 
reform  the  relations  of  the  sexes  is  to  reform  the  whole  social 
theory.  The  root  of  the  evil  is  in  the  religious  beliefs  of 
society.  The  low  bestial  condition  of  woman  is  due  to  the 
so-called  divine  revelation  which  works  out  her  sphere. 
The  Hebrew  Bible  teaches  that  she  is  the  slave  of  man, 
and  the  Christian  Bible,  so  far  from  repealing  this  part  at 
least  of  Mosaism,  solemnly  re-enacts  it.  Now  it  makes  no 
difference  how  clearly  the  good  sense  of  an  enlightened  age 
may  see  that  this  is  not  the  natural  relation  of  the  sexes,  so 
long  as  what  they  believe  to  be  divine  revelation  declares 
that  such  is  the  will  of  God ;  so  long  woman  will  be  a  slave 

238 


THE  SOCIAL  EVIL  239 

and  pleasure-offering  to  man.  It  was  this  Biblical  sanction 
that  perpetuated  chattel  slavery  a  thousand  years  longer  in 
Christendom  than  it  otherwise  could  have  existed,  and  still 
perpetuates  it,  and  it  is  this  alone  that  is  now  perpetuating 
sexual  slavery. 

This  is  the  root  of  the  evil.  Its  many  branches  are  but 
necessary  growths  from  it.  In  conformity  with  this  general 
belief  in  the  divinely  appointed  mission  of  woman,  men  have 
made  such  laws  to  punish  her  for  all  kinds  of  insubordina- 
tion, and  omitted  to  make  any  to  punish  the  abuses  of  her 
masters.  Woman  being  a  mere  chattel  divinely  ordained  to 
contribute  to  the  gratification  of  men's  desires,  and  perform 
drudgery  service  for  him,  it  could  not  be  expected  that  she 
should  be  accorded  any  of  the  common  human  rights.  All 
the  codes  of  Christendom  show  that  she  has  never  had  any. 
She  is  under  "perpetual  tutelage"  till  "given  in  marriage," 
and  then  she  is  "merged"  in  her  husband.  This  rule  has 
but  one  exception,  and  that  is  where  she  happens  to  do 
anything  that  men  have  enacted  to  be  wrong;  then  she  is 
punished  far  more  severely  than  a  man  would  be  for  the 
same  offenses.  The  Church  Councils  of  the  Middle  Ages 
gravely  discussed  the  question  whether  woman  had  a  soul, 
and  though  the  majority  perhaps  agreed  that  she  had,  it 
was  chiefly  because  they  feared  they  could  n't  punish  her 
enough  in  this  world  for  the  crimes  that  men  saw  fit  to 
commit  upon  her  person,  and  so  instructed  God  Almighty 
to  make  her  punishment  eternal.  Considering  the  purposes 
for  which  woman  was  divinely  created,  it  was  not  of  course 
to  be  expected  that  her  master  would  allow  her  to  train  her- 
self to  any  useful  pursuit.  She  was  fit  only  for  two  things — 
to  gratify  men's  lusts,  and  do  their  menial  service.  For  this 
reason,  we  see  her  only,  either  as  a  puppet,  a  lay  figure,  a 
poupee,  adorned  with  gewgaws  and  utterly  helpless;  or  else 
as  a  drudge,  a  toiling,  haggard,  jade,  spawning  forth  period- 
ically the  crude,  ungrafted  fruit  of  ignorance,  and  returning 
immediately  to  her  tub  or  her  loom.  And  even  these  two 
"avenues"  are  unhesitatingly  closed  to  her  the  moment 


240  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

she  happens  to  "fall"(?).  To  "fall"  is  to  allow  a  man  to 
violate  the  laws  he  has  made  for  the  sake  of  gratifying  his 
lust  through  her.  For  him  this  brings  no  punishment. 
Who  would  enact  a  law  to  punish  himself?  But  for  her, 
his  natural  slave,  who,  should  she  slay  him,  would  be  guilty 
of  petit  treason,  a  higher  crime  than  murder — for  her,  the 
penalty  is  perpetual  ostracism  from  society  and  perpetual 
outlawry  by  the  code. 

The  Old  Testament  teaches  polygamy,  because  when  it 
was  written  the  Jews  were  chiefly  polygamists.  The  New 
Testament  teaches  monogamy,  because  when  it  was  written, 
by  fusion  with  more  enlightened  peoples,  they  had  become 
chiefly  monogamous.  But  to  monogamy,  which  was  an 
advance,  the  New  Testament  added  sanctity  and  indissolu- 
bility,  which  have  grown  up  into  another  great  branch  of 
the  social  evil.  As  to  the  sanctity  of  the  marriage,  it  was 
not  the  first  attempt  to  make  a  thing  holy  by  declaring  it  to 
be  so.  Yet  the  "Bible  said  so,  and  it  must  be  so,"  has 
become  the  belief  and  the  practice  in  the  face  of  the  horrid 
social  picture  which  the  world  to-day  presents. 

As  to  the  indissolubility  of  marriage,  it  became  at  length 
such  a  scourge  that  in  the  place  of  their  literal  revealed 
text  the  Christian  legislatures  of  the  world  have  proceeded 
of  late  to  modify  and  abate  it.  Still  it  is  by  no  means  done 
away,  and  the  social  lex  non  scripta,  always  more  snobbish 
and  intolerant  than  statute  law,  looks  upon  a  divorced 
woman  as  the  next  thing  to  a  prostitute.  The  doctrine  of 
indissolubility  of  marriage  is,  without  exception,  the  most 
monstrous  one  to  which  humanity  was  ever  compelled  to 
submit.  It  requires  two  persons,  too  young  to  have  possibly 
had  sufficient  experience  to  form  a  reasonable  judgment 
upon  such  matters,  and  usually  too,  at  a  time  when  they 
are  both  laboring  under  absorbing  romantic  illusions,  to 
form  a  partnership  only  dissoluble  by  death  or  actual 
adultery.  If  the  law  required  such  a  partnership  between 
two  men  for  business  purposes  it  would  be  far  less  absurd, 
because  though  young  they  would  look  deliberately  upon 


THE  SOCIAL  EVIL  241 

a  business  transaction.  It  is  as  if  it  first  compelled  them 
to  drink  to  intoxication,  and  then,  in  that  mental  state,  to 
form  an  indissoluble  partnership! 

These  are  the  two  great  branches  of  the  social  evil.  We 
cannot  follow  out  its  minor  ramifications.  The  first  by 
hedging  woman  round  with  intolerable  conditions,  and  cast- 
ing her  out  because  too  weak  to  comply  with  them,  furnishes 
the  supply.  The  second  by  rendering  married  life  unhappy 
and  intolerable — making  the  home  a  hell  and  the  wife  an 
object  repulsive  to  the  man's  embraces,  and  thus  driving 
him  elsewhere  to  satisfy  his  nature — furnishes  the  demand, 

Having  held  up  this  foul  subject,  reeking  with  loathsome 
disease  and  wretchedness,  we  now  lay  it  at  the  door  of  the 
Church  whence  it  originated  and  where  it  legitimately 
belongs. 


November  to,  t871—Mtat.  SO. 

70.     Scraps  of  Ecclesiastical   History 

No.  6.     Persecution  of  the  Waldenses 

History. — Written  August  29  and  30,  1871. 

The  Iconoclast,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Vol.  II,  No.  18,  August,  1871. 


TE  persecution  of  the  Waldenses  forms  a  very  promin- 
ent chapter  in  the  history  of  Christianity.  They 
were  a  species  of  dissenters  from  the  Church  of 
Rome,  and  although  very  religious  and  firm  followers  of 
Christ  and  believers  in  the  Bible,  did  not  subscribe  to  all 
the  measures,  nor  recognize  the  forms  of  the  Romish  Church. 
They  boastfully  claimed  a  direct  origin  from  the  early 
apostolic  church  and  a  history  and  descent  independent  of 
the  papal  sovereignty;  but  this  claim  when  subjected  to 
critical  historical  investigation  is  found  to  have  no  basis. 
The  best  account  of  the  origin  of  the  name  Waldenses  is  that 
which  derives  it  from  Peter  Waldo,  a  merchant  of  Lyon, 
who  founded  a  new  sect  in  his  native  city  from  which  he, 
with  the  followers,  was  exiled  by  the  intolerance  of  the 
community,  and  took  refuge  in  the  valleys  which  lie  on  the 
eastern  slope  of  the  Cottian  Alps.  The  great  Mont  Cenis 
Tunnel  just  being  completed,  opens  out  upon  the  scene  of 
bloody  massacres  of  innocent  human  beings  for  opinion's 
sake,  as  if  desirous  to  blot  out  by  so  splendid  an  achievement 

242 


PERSECUTION  OF  THE  WALDENSES       243 

of  science  the  memory  of  so  brutal  an  achievement  of 
religion. 

Locked  up  in  these  natural  fastnesses  the  humble  Vandors 
for  a  time  fancied  themselves  safe  from  the  griffin  claws  of 
religious  intolerance.  Industrious  and  frugal,  they  made 
the  hills  blossom  with  fruitfulness,  and  the  valleys  rich  with 
golden  grain.  Free  from  the  spirit  of  propagandism,  they 
only  asked  to  be  permitted  to  worship  God  according  to  the 
dictates  of  their  own  consciences.  But  the  fiend  of  perse- 
cution soon  found  them  out  and  the  great  ecclesiastical 
power  sent  its  armies  into  the  mountains  to  extirpate  the 
sect.  Many  and  bitter  were  the  wars  that  were  sustained  by 
this  numerically  trifling  band.  Cold  and  remorseless  were 
the  butcheries  of  helpless  women  and  children,  in  which 
these  blood-thirsty  bigots  indulged  in  their  Christian 
vengeance.  Between  the  years  1332  and  1478  they  were 
subject  to  constant  persecution,  but  succeeded  in  surviving 
them.  In  1541  Francis  I  of  France  ordered  them  to  be 
extirpated.  The  French  army  marched  in  among  them,  but 
finding  no  organized  resistance,  attacked  their  homes,  very 
much  as  our  Christian  soldiers  attacked  the  Indian  wigwams, 
and  butchered  the  men,  women,  and  children.  A  few  they 
seized  and  ordered  to  be  Catholics,  which,  seeing  they  could 
not  do,  belief  not  being  subject  to  the  will,  they  burned 
them  alive.  Yet  the  obstinate  sect  "would  not  down." 
Pope  Paul  IV  forbade  them  to  exercise  their  faith  under 
penalty  of  being  sent  to  the  galleys.  Touched  at  last  with 
pity,  in  1560  the  Duke  of  Savoy,  then  in  possession  of 
Piedmont,  suggested  to  the  Pope  that  a  conference  be  had 
between  the  Waldenses  and  the  Roman  divines.  The  prop- 
osition was  rejected  as  monstrous,  and  he  was  compelled 
to  renew  the  work  of  blood.  Ten  thousand  men  were  dis- 
patched to  the  spot  and  an  indescribable  scene  took  place. 
The  Waldenses  now  gave  up  to  despair  and  fought  with  all 
the  fury  of  born  fanatics.  The  resistance  was  gallant  and 
the  struggle  desperate,  but  against  such  odds  it  could  have 
but  one  result.  They  were  overwhelmed  by  numbers  and 


244  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  COSMOS 

discipline,  and  forced  to  take  flight  into  the  mountains,  be 
taken  prisoners,  or  burnt  alive.  The  women  were  butchered 
to  prevent  the  possibility  of  any  more  heretics  being  born, 
and  the  children  were  either  slain  with  their  mothers  or  left 
to  perish  without  protectors,  or  conveyed  away  to  Catholic 
asylums  to  be  brought  up  in  the  faith. 

Under  the  operation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  the  families 
of  the  Waldenses,  which  had  survived,  having  been  driven 
into  all  parts  of  Europe,  formed  a  determination  to  return 
in  a  body  to  their  beloved  valleys.  They  were  led  by  Henry 
Amand,  one  of  their  pastors.  They  succeeded  in  their 
attempts  and  had  a  large  flourishing  community  together 
on  the  scene  of  their  early  perils.  But  Louis  XIV  revoked 
the  Edict  of  Nantes,  and  they  found  themselves  again  a 
prey  to  the  fiend  of  persecution. 

In  1689  an  army  of  22,000  men  was  sent  into  their  terri- 
tories to  drive  them  out.  They  were  this  time  better 
prepared  for  war,  and  besides  had  formed  an  alliance  with 
the  Piedmontese  who  rendered  them  much  assistance. 
They  are  said  to  have  fought  18  battles  against  the  French 
without  losing  but  30  men.  The  French  lost  heavily,  and 
after  some  further  threats  and  delay,  seemed  to  have  aban- 
doned the  project  of  exterminating  the  Waldenses.  From 
that  time  until  the  present  King  Victor  Emmanuel  ascended 
to  the  throne  of  Italy,  they  suffered  constant  molestation 
from  the  Catholic  communities,  who  regarded  them  as 
outlaws.  But  that  king,  in  the  spirit  of  tolerance  which  has 
characterized  him,  soon  admitted  them  to  all  the  privileges 
of  Roman  Catholics. 


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